Gun control and rape - The myths and the facts

One of the most commonly seen phrases in TPG is, "Gun control, the
theory that 110lb. women should have to fistfight with 210lb. rapists."
Another claim is "Guns make rape dangerous for the rapist." And just
a few days ago from Scout, "Since women do get raped, why do you want
to deprieve them of the choice to possess a very effective self defense
tool?"


If this were true then in a country like the US, which has allows for
the private ownership of firearms for the purpose of self defense,
there should be evidence of such use in the near 200,000 rape/sexual
assaults that occur annually.



US DOJ data gives a breakdown of the self-protective measures employed
by victims of rape/sexual assault. The most common method is 'resisted
or captured offender' at 28%. That's probably where our fistfighters
are categorised. Next were 3 methods all around 14%, 'persuaded or
appeased offender', 'scared or warned offender' and 'ran away or hid'.
Add in 'screamed from pain or fear' at 7% and 'got help or gave alarm'
which accounted for 4% then over three-quarters (81%) of
self-protective measures have been accounted for, yet weapon use as a
method of self-protection is yet to appear.



Did any victims threaten or attack the rapists with a weapon? Well 7%
'attacked offender without weapon" while 5% 'threatened offender
without weapon". Those numerate amongst us will realise that we are now
at 93% of all self-protective measures and still no weapons in sight.
Two categories have yet to get a mention, 'attacked offender with
weapon ' and 'threatened offender with weapon'. This is where we should
find those US gals (and occasional guy) using guns as so many here
suggest they might be used.



And what are the percentages for those two categories? Identical as it
turns out, 0.0% for 'attacked offender with weapon ' and 0.0% for
'threatened offender with weapon'. The remaining 7% were categorised as
'took other measures'.



So effectively NO women in the US, 110lb or otherwise, are using guns,
or any other weapon for that matter, to protect themselves against
rapists. Yet the constant refrain in TPG is that gun control will force
women to fist fight rapists. Well about a quarter do that already, but
NONE use weapons to defend themselves. Clearly increased gun control
will have no impact on rape victims defending themselves.


My guess is that in almost all incidents a rape/sexual assault takes
place in circumstances where access to a weapon is highly problematic,
the assault has begun before the woman has time to react. Most
rape/sexual assaults are done by people the victim knows, with about
10% by a spouse.


On the other side of the coin the rapists aren't afraid to use weapons
with 16% doing so and in almost 6,000 rape/sexual assaults a gun was
the weapon used by the attacker.



The intriguing thing about all this is that anyone espousing a gun
control line is accused being on the side of the criminal, yet the
facts show that gun control would not change the situation of victim's
methods of self-protection one bit, but may improve their chances of
not confronting a gun. In Australia, with its tougher gun control
regulations, there were 9 (nine) rape/sexual assaults in 2003 were the
perpetrator used a gun, that's 0.05%. US - no gun defence and 3.1% of
attackers used guns V Australia - no gun defence and 0.05% of attackers
used a gun.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus0304.pdf tables 66 and 70

Gun control, if it changes anything to do with rape, will be to lessen
the use of guns as offensive weapons but will not reduce the use of
guns defensively.

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Gun control and rape - The myths and the facts
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