'But my gun will be taken away and used against me!'
Image courtesy of Oleg Volk.
A Pervasive Myth
I probably should, and probably eventually will, put this in the myths essay, but it's worth some thought of its own.A fairly common theme that runs through anti-gun writing is that, if a woman is trying to resist rape with a handgun, the gun will be taken away and used against her.
It's a theory, I guess. Sorta. I understand it happens on TV fairly frequently—on dramatic shows, where what happens is controlled by the scriptwriter, director, and producer.
In real life, though? With literally millions of permit holders in the United States, and with 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year, if this was a real problem, wouldn't it have happened by now?
The Mystery of the Nonexistent Reports
Over the ten years that I knew the late Darrell Mulroy, he often publicly scoffed at the idea. And loudly. (Darrell was like that.) To him, it didn't make sense. Would a rapist, involved in a confrontation, risk his life? Wouldn't he just turn around and flee?It didn't make sense to me, either. Assume that some percentage of rapists actually tried to disarm their erstwhile victims. Some, perhaps, would be successful—but, surely, not all of them. Where's all the dead rapist bodies? Where's all the reports of the survivors talking about how their guns were taken away from them?
I can't find them. Can you?
Darrell never tended to put anything tentatively.
I am an author and firearms self defense specialist. I have been involved in a highly visible search for the illusive female that has been disarmed and the gun used against her. I have yet to find a single case. This is often the reason women are told not to use a firearm. On its face it "sounds good", but seems to have no basis in fact. I have posted on countless newsgroups, asked on radio/tv talk shows and in interviews. I was on KRLD in Dallas Texas being interviewed when this was said. " NAME ONE", I snapped. In fact, I offered $l0,000 cash to anyone that could find me such a case in the three hours we had left on the show. NOBODY CLAIMED THE MONEY. We were on the Texas Radio Network.Darrell died earlier this year; he never did find a report.I find where a woman was holding off a violent spouse with a handgun and when police arrived they did indeed disarm her and took her gun. A few days later the husband returned and killed her. . . but not with her gun; the police had that.
Perhaps with your resources you could aid me in this search. I feel this argument is a feeble "urban legend" that needs to be put to rest, and its content implies females are stupid and unable to defend themselves from the powerful male. In my experience three of my female students are alive today because of my training and would not have survived the encounter if it wasn't for training and a firearm.
-- Darrell E. Mulroy
I haven't, either.
What are the facts? I dunno, for sure. But I've got my suspicions. Why is it that nobody can seem to point to this actually happening, ever? With rape as regrettably common as it is, and with millions of women permit holders across the United States, if this does happen, we should be seeing some reports—women who report having had their gun taken away, or having killed their attacker. We should have many; we have none.
I can guess why. I've had a few woman students. Were one of those to point a gun at me, my first inclination would be to get out of there. It sure as hell would not to be to try to take it away from her.
(To digress for a moment, it's always a treat for me when a boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife couple take the class together. So far, all of the time, he's been a far more experienced shooter than she is. Almost all of the time, she outscores him at the shooting qualification, on the range. My sexist theory is that men, by and large, believe that being issued a penis at birth somehow confers marksmanship skills; my nonsexist theory is that point shooting—which is what I teach, and on which I need to do an essay—is easier to learn if your head isn't filled with other techniques.)
That was another thing that Darrell and I agreed on.
I'd occasionally sit in on one of his classes. He'd usually introduce me in a nice way, and then in his usual guys-insulting-guys-in-a-friendly way, add, "Now, don't you worry about him. He just looks a little scary." Then he'd drop his smile, and add: "But his wife . . . if you ever put Felicia in a situation where she thinks you'd hurt him, or her, or particularly the kids, you better have made your will out."