I see a lot of discussion around the topic. I live in a country where owning a gun is legal and getting permit isn't hard. Yet there isn't many guns around since it's not exactly a part of our society. You want a gun? Fine, as you wish. It just isn't relevant to your social status or anything. To put it bluntly, people here just don't care. And that is how it should be in my opinion. However, not every country is like that and the topic of guns is very heated topic. I would like to offer my view of the problem.
Self defense
I am slightly above average height girl that is fit and strong. I am trained in martial arts and I was unlucky enough to actually be in a situation where I had to defend myself. Simply run away just wasn't an available option. I can tell you this much - street thugs and aggressive violent people in general love martial arts so I have no advantage there. However they are more experienced in using it in real situation, they are also usually bigger, heavier and stronger. Being a bit faster, isn't actually that much of an advantage. And believe it or not while man may just give up his earthly possessions, girl who surrenders might suffer a fate a lot worse than just losing wallet and a mobile phone.
So what options does an average girl really have?
A knife! - that actually helps against single attacker. Carry one with you every time you know you will go anywhere alone. Girls were raped during a daylight hours too. Single attackers tend to ambush from behind using surprise as a main factor. Tackling you and getting into a brawl before you can run. Having a short blade in a sleeve or in the thigh pocket is a great help. If you have long hair - needles to pin it down are useful too. Actually works better than a gun in this particular scenario. But once there is more than one person it's useless.
Call for help! - ok now that is a joke. Unless you are a police bait and your unit is just around the corner it will most likely not do any good. Criminals usually don't pick spot to commit their crimes on the places where it would help you and even if they do, it is rare that someone would respond to it otherwise than maybe calling a police. I know that from experience. Even in the urban area, that might take several minutes. And that is in a situation where seconds matter.
Pepper spray! No, not really effective. You have to be within very short range and when you are, time opponent needs to jump to you even if you have it drawn is too short. Threat of a spray is low (meaning you wont scare them away with it) and if there is more of them - it is entirely useless. Also, doesn't have to work on everyone, especially narco addicts might not even register it. In a situation where assailant has already hands on you (ambush from behind etc.) you will disable yourself just as well.
Pull a gun - now we're talking. If you are weaker, less prepared and in a disadvantageous situation (you always are, attacker is the one who picks time, place and a victim) while still have some space (common gang mugging scenario) gun can scare them off and if needed it can be an effective weapon even against multiple opponents. You may still go down but you at least got a chance.
Gun accessibility
Biggest and most common anti-gun argument. If we allow people to buy guns criminals will get them. I can understand the sentiment, but the truth is, there is a big black market of guns. Wishing it away is not an option. Organized crime will always have guns, people with some connections to underworld too. Thugs, street gangs. All of those will have guns if you want it or not. In my country occupying Nazis issued ban on guns of any sort and for not giving your weapon up you would be executed, without any legal process. The police state and army oversight was as harsh as you can imagine in occupied state. And yet, there were hundreds of thousands of guns. Taking means of self defense from the law abiding citizens means only giving an edge to the criminals. Which btw. takes me to "no gun zones".
USA, you are crazy. Seriously. If someone wants to slaughter a bunch of innocent kids in the school or people in the theater - he will not stop before a "no guns beyond this point" sign. But it will assure him that he will not be stopped by anyone. That is how the guy picked the theater for a shooting spree on batman premiere. If someone wants to kill as many defenseless victims as he can than "no gun zone" is a huge invitation for a psychopath. And if you think no guns at all in the hands of public would solve this particular problem - let me remind you that in Germany was a mass murder in school done by a home made spear. 10 victims dead, 22 wounded. Oh and there was one with a knife in china that was stopped by a citizen with a gun.
Also, there was a questioning among inmates and about 70% of those confessed that at least at one occasions they decided not to attack because the victim might had been armed. So just ability to own means of self defense on itself is decreasing crime rate.
TL;DR
Girls, old people and generally everyone not a young well trained and fit male, needs a way to defend themselves. Gun is the only effective way that does not rely on physical prowess and have a very high threat (meaning you can scare people off with it).
If you feel like leaving a comment, sure, go ahead.
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