NY Mag: NRA Endangering Women by Promoting Armed Self-Defense

On July 13 NY Mag suggested the NRA’s promotion of armed self-defense for women actually endangers women.

They suggest that more women will die during an attack if women possess firearms. This paradigm is the result of a long-held leftist theory that men will simply take the woman’s gun and use it against her.

NY Mag points to “research” by  the American Journal of Public Health, which says:

When an abusive partner has access to a gun, even if the gun belongs to their victim, the situation is more likely to turn deadly: “The presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent,” and, “more than half of women murdered with guns are killed by family members or intimate partners.” 

The context of the quote is unknown, but even if it is being used in the right context–and even if claims contained in it can be substantiated–the entire point stands or falls on an attacker having “access” to the woman’s gun. Are we to believe that women are going to give such access to attackers? Or are we supposed to think women really have no choice–that they are too weak to have guns?

We saw this in August 2015, when New Yorkers Against Gun Violence’s Leah Gunn Barrett fought efforts to allow women on college campuses to be armed for self-defense. She suggested women are too weak to have guns, saying, “Women are not physically powerful like men are. A gun could easily be turned on the woman, and it is frequently.”

We also saw it in Colorado in March 2013 when state senator Evie Hudak (D-Westminster) countered the testimony of a rape victim “who testified that she felt she could have defended herself against her attacker if she had been carrying her weapon.” The victim, Amanda Collins, was raped on a gun-free campus in Nevada. Collins had her concealed carry permit but was not allowed to have her firearm with her for self-defense.

The Denver Post quoted Hudak’s response: “I just want to say that actually, statistics are not on your side even if you had had a gun.”

The NRA’s message is that women like Amanda Collins can defend themselves if allowed to carry guns for self-defense. The left’s message is that women are not up to task. The contrast could not be more stark.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.