A Deadly Myth - Women, Handguns, and Self-Defense

The Violence Policy Center ^ | FR Post 10-27-2002 | Editorial Staff

[NewRomeTacitus]

This study confirms: more women need to be armed.

[inquest]

No, they're not dumb. They know exactly what they're doing.

[TC Rider]

Was Bellesiles a co-author?

Really, it is so easy for them to ignore the millions of women who have avoided attack and rape by merely brandishing a firearm or wounding an assailant.

I personally know 2 local women who avoided attack by merely brandishing.

Sadly, I've met several women at ranges and training who have gotten firearms after the fact. They won't be victims again.

They also assume that if there were no handguns, that abusive husbands and boyfriends wouldn't just bash their heads in with a hammer.

[Jesse]

"They are an arm of the DNC."

Exactly. It isn't gun control these socialist elitists are after as much as people control. These are the same people as the radical environmentalists, the anti-growthers, the anarchists, tree-sitters and ban SUV'ers, the so-called pro-choicers, and the Kyoto fanatics...feel free to add to the list. Their role models are culled from the pages of Karl Marx, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and from the fatal legacies of Mao, Stalin, Mussolini, Janet Reno, and Fidel Castro.

They share the common groupthink delusion that they are the chosen ones; smarter, prettier, funnier: the zookeepers. The rest of us who do not share their vision are dumber, uglier, duller: the animals.

They know that caged animals are dangerous, and it is necessary to emasculate as many of the more dangerous animals "for their own good" as possible to remove any threat to their new world order. Like ants, in their ordered society, each member has a duty and a purpose to contribute to the common "good".

Hence, the disarmament faction of the DNC fascists, aka the Brady bunch, the VPC, etc.

I no longer engage in their debate on their terms, and I think freedom lovers should change tactics. Arguing about the lethality of a particular firearm is futile. Instead, I liken these fanatics to the rest of the control freaks that make up their coalition, comparing them to the Greenpeace, tree sitting, radical environmentalist, anti-freedom kooks.

[agrace]

Good point. And correct me please if I am wrong (my eyes crossed a bit toward the end there), but are they actually comparing the "number of women who killed in self defense with their own handguns" with the "number of ALL women, non-gunowners included, killed by someone else's handgun"? Yeah sure, that's a fair comparison.

To make sense, they should be comparing the number of women who kill in self defense with their own handgun with the number of women who are killed with their own handgun while trying to defend themselves. The control group should strictly be those women who own handguns, in order to determine whether the use of them has been successful or unsuccessful in their own protection. Throwing ALL women in there, including those who have own firearms at all, simply because a gun was involved regardless of whose gun it was, completely creates an apples to oranges situation.

Totally misleading. The question is, as you already stated, how effective are handguns in the defense of women WHO ACTUALLY OWN THEM.

[coloradan]

In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill an intimate acquaintance in self-defense, 83 woman were murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun.

This statistic has always puzzled me. They present the number as if it should be shocking, and as if new legislation should be enacted to make the number less shocking. But what would this legislation be? If 83 women are killed for each one that kills in self defense, surely the first number should be smaller. Given that murders will continue to happen no matter what the laws are, the easiest way to do that is to encourage more women to kill in self-defense. And the way to do that is to get more women armed and trained in self-defense - so that more shootings happen and more of them are fatal. This appears to be what the VPC is trying to endorse - and now you know why they are the Violence Policy Center. Not the non-violence policy center, mind you. They are centered on a policy of violence.

[SWO]

In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense, 302 woman were murdered with a handgun.


So let's see a more accurate headline would be;
In 1998, 302 UNARMED woman were murdered with a handgun, for every time an ARMED woman used a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense.

[copycat]

Really, it is so easy for them to ignore the millions of women who have avoided attack and rape by merely brandishing a firearm or wounding an assailant.

Why not? The American press completely ignores this factor too.

The violence policy center completely disgusts me. This piece is meant to appear like a learned study, but it operates from a purposefully false premise...that only when a woman KILLS HER ASSAILANT is her use of a handgun an effective deterent.

[agrace]

EXACTLY my point in 25, although you said it so much more briefly. :) Makes no sense at all, does it. Talk about blatant distortion of statistics.

[TC Rider]

My Mom has carried a .25 Mauser in her purse for more than 50 years now (She's 79). Never fired in anger, well, except for that black snake that scared the cra.., er, daylights out of her on the camp toilet back in 1959.

The black snake escaped unharmed, but was surely deterred from ever bothering my Mom ever again.

..and yes, we've tried to convince her to upgrade many times through the years, but she's really attached to her little Mauser and wouldn't think of trading it in. My Dad has quit carrying his double action Army Colt .45 revolver under his jacket and changed to a 9mm in a Colt Commander stainless frame as a concession to his advanced years.

[NH Liberty]

This article is utter rubbish.

The only thing that this article proves is that not nearly enough women are carrying handguns to protect themselves! Second Amendment Sisters, where are you???

The most amusing thing about this article is that these folks believe that because they've tacked a few footnotes onto its end, we will all slavishly come to believe that it is "scholarly" and, therefore, of course, true...

[toddst]

Yet how often are handguns actually used by women to kill in self-defense?

(Your response) How about a much more useful question, how many times are handguns used to scare off a would be attacker?

Your question does, of course, reflect the most important issue of deterrence. Their stated assumption - killing is the objective.

Another point to add is what armed women should focus on when facing an attacker. The objective is to stop the attack and survive unharmed, as opposed to killing. It's well to keep in mind "I shot to stop, not to kill."

[SouthernFreebird]

Is this s'pose to scare us women into abandoning our guns?


While I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer even I know if someone is breaking into my house I have a beter chance saving myself and family hitting him with a bullet than with my purse.... they know it too and seek out those who aren't armed.

[RogueIsland]

This vomitus "study" summed up in one sentence: "Women are too stupid and incompetent to defend themselves with a gun. They should just sit back and accept rape as inevitable and stop trying to do anything about it. Who do they think they are, anyway?"

Shows you what the VPC thinks about women, eh?

[alethia]

If anything at all, this shows that the great equalizer in terms of self defense and defense of family is a handgun. Many women (and I am a part of this gender) are stupid about self-defense.

Martial arts are great -- yet in many instances, women are still at a disadvantage due to a man's size or superior upper body strength. The knowledge of how to effectively use a gun should be something every well-informed woman possesses.

[arthurus]

They render useless their statistics right off the top by asking howw many with handguns kill in self defense.They are not interested in the numbers who successfully defend themselves with a gun who don't actually kill someone. I have used my own twice in self defense without once pulling the trigger. When the bad guy determines there is somewhere else he would rather be and he is late to get there, the gun has been used successfully in self defense.

[FourPeas]

As a woman who owns guns, I am first offended that such a skewed report is targeted at women. My second reaction is sadness, caused by a firm belief that most women who read it will not see through the huge holes in logic, half-truths or obviously one-sided agenda. When talking to other women, they often cite many of the "statistics" reported here as why guns are "bad".

The longer we, as a culture, hold up feminization as a goal, the closer we get to losing our freedom.

FP

[FreedomPoster]

>>Was Bellesiles a co-author?

He might be, but they're not sure. The dog ate their homework.

[FourPeas]

Shows you what the VPC thinks about women, eh?

I'd argue that it shows just how much the VPC understands about women. Scare tactics work. Women (in general) make decisions based on emotion.

[FreedomPoster]

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