There’s one universally accepted law of nature: every creature has a right to defend itself. From the elephants and giraffes on the plains of Africa to a woman walking alone down a dark alleyway, the right of each organism to defend itself against attack is a universally accepted fact that has existed since the beginning of time.
Or, at least, it should be. Here in the United States that right is enshrined and protected in the Second Amendment. Other places are more…sophisticated.
Canada is currently one of those places where the use of common, non-lethal self defense items like pepper spray is banned. One Member of Parliament, Kellie Leitch, is trying to change that. But she’s running into some heavy resistance from government officials who believe that allowing women to defend themselves is “unrealistic and offensive.”
Patty Hadju, Canada’s Minister of Status of Women (above), had this to say about Leitch’s proposal:
Violence against women is unacceptable in our society and our government is committed to making sure that women facing violence have a safe place to turn. Ms. Leitch’s proposal is unrealistic and offensive to women across this country. Her misguided approach places the onus on women to defend themselves rather than focusing on addressing and preventing gender-based violence.
This kind of statist gobbledigook has become all too common. Women don’t need the means to protect themselves. We just need to teach men not to rape.
Don’t think for a minute that this same “logic” is confined to locales like the Great White North or cosmopolitan capitals of Euro-weenie savoir vivre. It’s being applied here in the United States, too.
The Bloomberg bucks-funded site ‘The Trace’ — among many others — pushes the narrative that guns actually make women less safe. That women are somehow incapable of defending themselves against those who would beat, rape or murder them.
That doesn’t sound very empowering to me.
Violence against women (or men, for that matter) is indeed unacceptable in our society. Those who commit such acts should be caught and punished accordingly. But short of having a police officer permanently assigned to you at all times, there’s no way to actually guarantee your personal safety.
Humans have been teaching people that rape and murder is bad at least since Moses came down from the mountain. That process seems far from perfect. Which is why millions of Americans have been purchasing firearms: to avail themselves of the right to defend themselves and their families from possible violence. Because the best way to heal someone who has been victimized is to prevent the act from happening in the first place.