Recently in Florissant, Missouri, a woman shot and killed 34-year-old Randall Gaston, her fiance, who was living with her. When the police arrived at the home, the woman let them in, told them she lived there, and was peaceably taken into custody.
In addition to Gaston’s body with multiple gunshot wounds, the officers must have found evidence of serious domestic violence against the woman, as they believe the shooting to have been self-defense and are not filing charges against her. This means, of course, that the police believe Gaston would have inflicted serious bodily harm or killed her if she had not stopped him with lethal force.
There are women who listen to the mantra repeated by the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex, telling them that statistically, a firearm in the home has a higher chance of being used against them someone they know. However, they’re missing the rest of the story: of all women who are killed by men, 93% are killed by men they know.
Sixty-three percent of those are the wives or intimate partners of their killer. In this case, with the help of a firearm, one woman was able to avoid being part of that statistic.
This defensive gun use is what female empowerment actually looks like. It’s not pretty, but it saves lives.