Quote of The Day
While many say that it’s more dangerous for a woman to arm herself, the reality is that women are less likely to defend themselves in the first place. A 2007 study shows that 53% of women who were victims of violent crimes were still unwilling to carry a firearm.
Cassandra McBride
April 2024
Guns in the Home Statistics: The Effects of Firearms in the Home in 2024 (ammo.com)
I’m reminded of a debate I once had with a young woman who insisted private gun ownership is a bad idea. Her topic knowledge was near zero but she is very smart. It was amazing the things she came up with for “reasons” for her position. She came up with multiple things I had never heard or thought of before. All based on her on the spot creativity. I had over 25 years of debate experience on the topic and she was making me think. I felt I was holding my own pretty well until she claimed (paraphrasing as best as I can remember):
Since women are less likely to own and carry guns (admitting, “based my impression and no actual data”) and are more likely to be victims, guns are not used that much for self defense and therefore they shouldn’t be allowed in private ownership.
The twisted logic had me stunned for a few seconds and I finally, hesitantly, said,
So you are saying, that because the people that need to defend themselves the most are not exercising their right to defend themselves with the best available self-defense tool, they should be prohibited from defending themselves with the best tools?
She made a sort of frustrated “AHHHHHH….” sound and literally ran away.
A few years later I took her to the range. It was the first time she had ever touched a gun. By the end of the range session, from the low ready position, she was getting four shots on four six-inch diameter targets from 10’ away in under four seconds. I was amazed. That is an incredible performance for a new shooter!
We haven’t discussed the legality, practicality, or philosophical aspects of gun ownership since that one day when she ran away, she doesn’t own a gun (and where she currently lives it is in nearly impossible anyway), and almost certainly hasn’t touch a gun since that one trip to the range. But she sometimes sends me text messages, or calls me to tell me how glad she is to have me in her life.
I have hope that someday she will give serious consideration to owning a gun and being able to defend herself. I care for her too and am glad she is in my life as well.
I would really like to know what the background is of the 53% of female violent assault victims is that would not opt for carrying a firearm. There has to be something incredibly powerful in their experience that has brought them to believe, or caused them to believe that they cannot be responsible for themselves. It is too bad that the referenced study was done so long ago. This is just screaming for a follow-up to look into the psychology of these women. When I just mentioned this to my daughter, her instant response was that it was the schools. She referenced an experience she had in the 5th grade when she was disciplined for for telling a bully to shut-up and leave her alone. Shut-up was a proscribed word that was not to be used under any circumstances! Needless to say, the response of the principal of the school to my question about what language seemed to be acceptable and what was not (I heard language that would make a sailor blush coming from grade school kids waiting for the bus when I came to talk to him) led to my daughter being home-schooled..Could be brain dead parents as well, I suppose.
Some people are just like that. It seems certain people don’t have the capacity to think in defensive terms. Threats that aren’t in there face just don’t exist to them. And things that have happened are quickly forgotten.
Mostly in woman, and God bless’em. That attitude had me feeding the family rather than spending my entire check on a new 1911 or something.
But they see your preparations as a waste of some kind. Or worse, a mental illness. And the more vegan they are,(for lack of a better term for them), they become very outspoken about your efforts.
They’re also the first to look at you when something bad happens and say; Do something. Make it stop.
Well, I might, if I want to. Because I’m prepared to.
(It seems why the commie-vegan-fags took down the boy scouts.)
Anyway, to each their own, just don’t complain about the outcome.
“Do something. Make it stop”.
Yes. Wave your White Privilege Card at him. Your male patriarchy card.
Once with a girlfriend we were walking on a pier by the ocean, and a pelican was tangled in fishing line, flapping around on the boardwalk part, so we held it gently while I used my Swiss Army knife which I have owned since 1968 when a Swiss neighbor went to Switzerland and brought one back for me in part thank you for watering her plants. The Pelican stopped struggling, and allowed me to cut the fishing line and gently extract a couple of hooks without causing more blood or injury. Despite zero events that would cause someone to feel threatened by the knowledge that I carried a 3 1/2 inch pocket knife, she was somehow creeped out about it. Had the relationship lasted, I would have given her a classic 2″ knife with scissors, file, blade, toothpick and tweezers.
I am curious how she would have reacted.
“Teach Men not to rape.”
Admirable goal. In the meantime, because everyone will definitely not learn the lesson by whatever deadline they imagine it could be done, teach women to act effectively to protect themselves.
Most men aren’t going to rape anyone, and don’t want to, and will stop immediately if you tell them no.
The sort of man who doesn’t, probably won’t respond to any kind of teaching unless it hurtles towards them at about 3000 fps.
A few decades back one of my sisters clued me in on what may be a common reason for women not being willing to own/carry a handgun. Fear of easy suicide.
I acquired a new 5 shot snubbie for her, as she lived close to a bad neighborhood, and complained about problems walking her small/medium sized dog. (I should note that MOST dogs are absolutely worthless for self-protection purposes, especially out in public.)
We were all trained to shoot by our father when we were single digit ages, so pretty much hardwired for it, and the talent seems to run in the family. They all seem to have stories of embarrassing gun owners by outshooting them with their own guns.
She refused to accept the gun, and explained that she was concerned that she might shoot herself when having a bad day. Depression is another family trait, apparently.
” It seems certain people don’t have the capacity to think in defensive terms.”
Maybe it’s a problem with the individual’s perspective; “defensive” is reactive, not proactive. Stimuli has to exist prior to response, whereas being actively engaged in one’s own protection requires no prior stimuli, merely the understanding of that responsibility, awareness and engagement. If, however, one is conditioned from very early childhood to exist reactively it become the default setting which, once embedded, is extremely difficult to overcome or even modify substantially.
I’m sure someone, somewhere, most likely multiples thereof, has performed exhaustive study and analysis of differences in both structural operational perfomance and the processes of mental development between human males and human females, and probably published it as well. As to how much is biologically based and how much is influence and development, I have no clue, and I suspect most of us are primarily concerned with a sample size of one rather than an entire population.
And maybe it’s in combination with self-image? Just like most people that eat beef don’t want to admit to their enjoyment of industrial scale murder/slaughter?
Like the thought of cutting yourself when you’re young. The fear is overpowering.
As you get older. You fear, but it’s not mentally overpowering.
But it seems to really stick to woman that always think their right.