As reported, a woman was jogging around Noon a couple weeks ago at Point Nume State Beach in Souther California, when a would-be rapist approached and grabbed her. After struggling with her attacker for several minutes, she managed to break free. In a desperate effort to escape, the woman ran and dove off of a cliff and then slid about 100 feet down a steep hillside. The woman survived, and was taken to a hospital for treatment of her injuries from the fall. The rape suspect fled in the woman’s vehicle. My thoughts on this matter are below:
Those who oppose gun rights like to suggest that guns are the cause of crime. The sad fact is that there is a certain percentage of the population that is willing to rape, rob, beat stab, murder, kidnap, and otherwise harm their fellow human beings. This is has been true since long before the invention of gunpowder, and remains true to this day. Until human nature changes, there will (sadly) always be violent crime.
Even if gun bans actually worked (which they don’t), such laws would simply ensure that the physically strong would be able to use their strength to overpower the physically weaker members of society. Since most rapists tend to be younger and stronger males, while most rape victims tend to be physically weaker females, even a 100% effective gun ban would simply lead to a situation where the rapist overpowers his defenseless victim. Indeed, looking to Britain, which banned guns at the national level only to see gun-related and non-gun-related crime rise, demonstrates these points.
Given that fact, and the fact that the police cannot be everywhere at once, the best solution seems to be enabling crime victims to defend themselves. When women are armed, they can defend themselves against rapists, rather than being raped or having to jump from a cliff to escape. Also, since rapists are often serial offenders, one armed woman’s self defense actions can save many other women from suffering that terrible crime in the future.
Remember, having a gun for self defense is like wearing a seatbelt in the car or having a fire extinguisher at home – prudent decisions designed to protect against a risk that will hopefully never arise. While we all hope to never need our seatbelts, fire extinguishers, or guns, it is far better to have those tools and not need to use them than to need those tools but not have.
Holey Moley! It seems that trying to run faster would have been a better choice than jumping off a hundred foot cliff.