More Women are Supporting the Use of Guns for Protection

Many women are sensitive to the gun control topic – as a higher percentage of women than men are advocates for more gun control. In December 2014, according to the Pew Research Center, only 51% of women said owning a gun protects people from crime, compared to the 63% of men who said so. According to Pew, since 2012 there has been an 11% increase in the number of women who said owning a gun protects people (Chappell). So more women are now changing their minds about guns, as they need to for their safety and for the safety of their families.

Flickr image by Klaudyna

Amanda Collins was raped in 2007 on the University of Reno-Nevada campus by James Biela, a serial rapist who had raped two women and killed another. Collins, though she had a concealed carry permit, was attacked at gunpoint but had no gun on her at the time due to her compliance with university policy prohibiting concealed weapons on campus (Pavlich).

During a Colorado hearing on laws that would prohibit concealed carry on college campuses, Collins said, “If I had been carrying that night, two other rapes would have been prevented and a young life would have been saved. All of these [gun prohibition laws] are just sentiments that give a false sense of security. In my experience I know that the university that I attended, the University of Nevada-Reno, they didn't have any call boxes the night I was attacked. They afterwards installed them but I can tell you that a call box above my head while I was straddled on the parking garage floor being brutally raped wouldn't have helped me one bit. The safe zone? I was in a safe zone and my attacker didn't care” (Pavlich). Amanda Collins also declared that a rape whistle, which was suggested to be the solution to prevent rape by Representative Joe Salazar, would not have helped in her isolated situation (Pavlich).

In 2003, Kaye Booth, a writer for The Freeman, and her husband were both attacked while on mountain trails. A man approached with a rock and struggled with her husband. The author then felt the need to pull out her 9mm and fire at the attacker, who thereafter fled. “If my six-foot 220-pound husband couldn’t fend off the man, how effective would a 130-pound woman blowing a rape whistle have been in a similar circumstance?” (Booth). After this incident, the author felt that the gun protected her and her husband from death (Booth).

Martha Lewis, another woman who felt the need to use a gun because of a threatening situation, had her home broken into in 2012 early one morning. She told her two daughters to go into a bedroom and arm themselves with weapons to protect themselves. They were all at the top of the stairs when they saw a man standing at the bottom. He then began approaching them and asked if Lewis was going to shoot him, to which she replied that she would if she had to. Because the man kept coming, she made good on her promise of shooting him. The intruder stumbled outside and remained there until the police arrived to find him. After the incident, Lewis said to reporters: “There’s so much talk about banning guns and gun control but they’re for protection,” she said. “There’s no way that I could have fought him off” (Morgenstern).

In all of these scenarios women were threatened in dangerous and life-threatening

situations. In Collins’ case, she followed the law and paid a price for it. There is a very strong feeling by many that people should not have to choose between protection and following the law. Simply put: gun control laws put people’s lives at risk (Pavlich; Booth). Women especially should be concerned about gun control laws because guns are a method of easy and quick defense in the case of a threatening situation. Their natural right to self-preservation and to protect their families should not be tampered with, but rather respected.

Though females are less victimized than males: 15.8 vs. 18.4 per 1,000, overwhelmingly more women are raped compared to men (Crime in America.Net). In 2011, the rate of forcible rapes was estimated at 52.7 per 100,000 female inhabitants (Forcible Rape). The number of unreported rapes is in actuality drastically higher: according to statistics from 2008 to 2012 by Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network estimated only 40 percent of rapes get reported to the police (Lee).

More and more women are seeing the need to protect themselves than ever before (Chappell). Collins, Booth, and Lewis, are three women whose lives were threatened and, except in Collins’ case, defended themselves with a firearm. Both Booth and Lewis recognized how vulnerable they really would have been had they not been in possession of a gun and known how to use it properly (Booth; Morgenstern). Had Collins been in possession of her firearm, she wouldn’t have felt vulnerable while being on campus and it is probable that she wouldn’t have been raped (Pavlich). Increasing numbers of women, being concerned about their own vulnerability of being a victim and of their loved ones of being victims, are exercising their right to keep and bear arms. That right should be respected in order to decrease the chances of people being victimized.

The number of criminals who used a firearm or weapon to commit a rape, aggravated assault, or burglary is actually quite unsubstantial. According to the Bureau of Justice, from 2005-2010, a weapon was used in only 11% of rapes (Female Victims). As of 2011, a firearm was used in 21% of aggravated assaults compared to cutting instruments 19.1%, and other weapons 32.8% (Aggravated Assault). Between 2003 and 2007, only in 12% of violent household burglaries did the burglar use a firearm, while 61% of all burglars did not use one (Victimization During Household Burglaries). This data suggests that women could have the upper hand in attempted rapes, aggravated assaults, and burglaries by having a weapon on their person, due to the fact that the criminals in those cases are usually not armed with a quick and easily accessible weapon such as a firearm.

Although data suggests that more and more women are realizing the usefulness of a firearm, there are still plenty who don’t (Chappell). If more pro-gun control women heard stories like that of Collins, Booth, and Lewis, and realized the significance of data of the specific types of crime, perhaps they would feel differently about the use and restrictions of guns.

Booth, Kaye. "Armed Women, Empowered Women." The Freeman 21 May 2013: 1. web. 25 January 2015. 
Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Female Victims of Sexual Violence, 1994-2010." 2013. web. 30 January 2015.
—. "Victimization During Household Burglary." 2010. web. 30 January 2015.
Chappell, Bill. "Gun Rights Outweigh Gun Control in New Pew Survey." The Two Way 10 December 2014: 1. web. 25 January 2015.
Crime in America.Net. "What Are My Chances of Being a Victim of Violent Crime?" Crime in America.Net 13 December 2010: 1. web. 25 January 2015.
FBI. "Aggravated Assault." 2011. web. 30 January 2015.
—. "Forcible Rape." 2011. web. 28 January 2015.
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. "The Truth About a Viral Graphic on Rape Statistics." Washington Post 9 December 2014: 1. web. 30 January 2015.
Morgenstern, Madeleine. "Alabama Woman Shoots Home Intruder to Protect Herself and Her Ax- and Knife-Wielding Daughters." The Blaze 17 August 2012: 1. web. 28 January 2015.
Pavlich, Katie. "Colorado Democrat Lectures Rape Survivor Amanda Collins About Rape "Statistics"." Townhall 5 March 2013: 1. web. 28 January 2015.