Last year, a young woman made headlines when she tweeted a photo showing a gun in her waistband. Others followed suit, and it lead to a new hashtag: #NotMe. YouTube personality Barbara4u2c said that the campaign was about self-defense and not “relying on other people to decide your fate.” As one mom explained, she wants her children “to to be able to say #NotMe, instead of #MeToo.” If that sounds like a great idea, then I have good news.
You’re not an SJW.
Social justice warriors have reacted angrily to #NotMe. In their eyes, telling women to arm themselves is somehow offensive.
Nia Sanchez got a similar reaction when she advised women to “learn how to protect themselves,” with the Miss USA pageant winner being accused of “victim-blaming” and furthering “rape culture.” Whether her accusers think telling people to lock their cars promotes auto theft culture remains unclear.
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Many on the feminist left say the focus should be on “teaching men not to rape,” as if sexual assault could be prevented if only men understood that rape is bad. Well, here’s the thing: we already do. Men know that rape is wrong (or at least the men in our culture, anyway), which is why the overwhelming majority of us don’t engage in it. Those who do aren’t raping out of ignorance–they rape because they can get away with it. That’s something an armed victim can change.
Unlike most weapons, the efficacy of a gun depends on its user’s skill, not her size or strength. With proper training and practice, a woman can become deadlier than the strongest man. Research by economist John Lott bears this out: he found that women who defended themselves with a firearm had much higher rates of survival than those who didn’t. And examples of them doing that aren’t hard to find.
A woman in North Carolina managed to reach her gun after an intruder tied her up with electrical cords. A woman in Texas shot a convicted sex offender after he broke into her home. A Missouri woman shot an alleged rapist who did the same. And in Oklahoma, this woman shot two attackers, one of whom was armed with a large knife:
It’s tough to see how else these women could have defended themselves without firearms, and their cases aren’t unique, as you can find hundreds of others who did the same.
Obviously, sexual assault victims shouldn’t be blamed for what happened to them, but the #NotMe campaign isn’t about doing that; it’s about stopping victimizers. Because the reality is, rhetoric can’t stop rapists.
Bullets can.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
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