Would you deny a woman the ability to protect herself from rape?
How about a pregant woman? Or an elderly woman? People who are more vulnerable than your average woman.
For all you women-empowerment types, that want to “stand by women”, and “girl power” and all that. You want to empower women, right? You want women to be able to stand on equal (or greater) ground than men, right?
Why would you deny her the best means of equalizing force?
Opponents of firearms for effective self-defense tell others to run away from danger, to learn martial arts, or to “give the bad guy what he wants”. Not everyone can follow that advice…in fact, almost no one can. Least of all, the kind of people who are visibly vulnerable already, such as pregnant women or the elderly.
Ashley is a beautiful woman. She is currently three weeks away from delivering a child and one of the most fit looking expecting mothers I’ve seen. However fit and athletic she is, has little capability for hand-to-hand combat. It’s difficult to fight while carrying a heavy, fragile load within your own body.
Why might a woman like her have to fight? Pregnant women are easy prey for both human criminals and animal predators, especially dogs. They can’t fight effectively, nor can they flee quickly. Look up news headlines in your area and you will see examples of both kinds of attacks. Some women also face a threat from the future father who is not happy about having to support an unwanted child.
Indeed. People tend to get caught up in headlines and drama, instead of looking at the hard facts of reality. They tend to look at themselves or someone like them in a situation, not always considering there are those more vulnerable than they that may have needs greater than their own.
Those who oppose armed self-defense won’t be happy. Even though pregnant women are almost unknown to become violent criminals, the prohibitionists are against anyone other than the special people — the high-ranking politicians — having the benefit of effective protection. But they shouldn’t dictate how the rest of us take care of our own lives.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Had a long term argument with my husband over just this topic. He could not understand how a woman could ‘let herself’ be raped. One day, husband and cousin were having a friendly wrestling match in the front yard. Bulky cousin got the best of smaller husband over and over. When husband was recovering from one of those losses, I quipped “And that’s how it’s done.” Why would a woman even consider getting into a fight with a larger, stronger man? Or try to run from someone with longer legs than she? Methinks much of this s#*@t comes from older times when the woman was held responsible if she got pregnant from a rape and ‘boys will be boys’ got off scott free.
Could be.
I think people don’t consider situations outside their realm of experience/exposure. They seem themselves as fit and unencumbered, so that tends to be how life gets looked at.
Do people consider “self defense when pregnant”? or rather… getting attacked when pregant? or in a wheelchair? or if you are disabled? If you can’t run… or can’t run as fast… that there might be someone bigger, stronger, faster, better than you?
Heck, look at my petite wife and when she was sexually assaulted while pushing our (then) infant son in a stroller around the sidewalk surrounding our (then) apartment complex. How many people think of such a situation? and the awkwardness it brings… and how all your “in the dojo” or “at the take back the night rally” situations just really don’t apply.