Independent Women: 3 Facts About Gun-Owning Women

URL: http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/women-gun-owners/

The media likes to claim that guns are just expensive toys for immature men. People care only about guns because they’re fun to shoot, they go boom, and we watch a lot of movies. Right? Wrong.

Millions of women own guns and use them to stop an untold number of crimes, whether it’s murder, robbery, sexual assault, or other crimes. They don’t own guns because it’s cute, sexy, or just fun. They own them because the gun is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter how big a guy is, buckshot will take him down like anyone else.

It’s like what Larry Elder, one of my favorite political writers, wrote: “A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders.” So let’s skip the propaganda and look at the cold, hard facts:

1. Over 15,000,000 women are proud gun owners. 

Much to the sadness of the Brady Campaign, 15,000,000 women have taken self-defense as a personal issue, and are armed. That means they don’t want to be another statistic or just another victim — they want to be able to rely on themselves and stop sexist attacks with the same weapon the militia used to stop the tyranny of Great Britain – the gun.

Over 23% of women are gun owners, because they know that self-defense sometimes requires a powerful response to the would-be attacker.

2. Women use guns to stop sexual violence and other crimes.

Even the Clinton era anti-gunners admit that guns are used in self-defense up to 1.5 million times per year. I personally know many people who have been in these circumstances. This is stuff that doesn’t make the news, because it’s not going to get much attention — but it happens, and it’s real.

Women make up a huge portion of those using guns in self defense. The Gun Owners Foundation, for example, explains that the The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology published a report showing that:

“As many as 200,000 women use a gun every year to defend themselves against sexual abuse.”

That’s just one kind of crime. Over ten years, that means as many as 2,000,000 women are protected — from that crime alone. This is wonderful. We should be encouraging women to own guns so men can’t violate their will without seeing an instant, deadly consequence. People who seek to disarm women aren’t feminists — they’re acting directly against the best interests of women.

3. Pro-gun activists include millions of women.

Men aren’t the only ones passionate about gun ownership. Just go to our Facebook page and look at the people talking about gun rights, and you’ll see thousands of women passionately defending their right to independence, safety, and dignity — through self-defense.

A 10 minute Google search sees dozens of organizations by women, for women, dedicated to keeping women safe even when they’re alone — through the Second Amendment.

It’s time we stop the sexist, racist gun laws that put society’s most oppressed in an even more compromising situation. Let’s defend the rights of all individuals, especially the right to self defense and the right to keep and bear arms.

If you want to read more, check out 5 politically incorrect gun facts you’re not supposed to know.