Good news, everyone! For those of you who, like me, have been wondering when conservatives would stop making infuriatingly stupid statements about rape and guns, It just got worse. Now they're making infuriatingly stupid comments about rape and guns at the same fucking time.
Yes, as one of my libertarian contacts posted on facebook this morning, the best defense against rape isn't pepper spray, it's a sniper rifle and a tote bag full of Glocks. Okay, I don't know for a fact that the tote bag is full of Glocks, having not observed the contents myself, but considering the source both of the original image, and the person who posted it, I'd give 50/50 odds on that bag being full of pistols. I guess we can think of them as Schrodinger's glocks.
First off, a woman doesn't defend herself against rape with a sniper rifle unless she's fending off Somali rebels. If we live in a world where in order to remain un-raped, a woman has to take out every man she sees at 800 yards, then someone has employed the screwfly solution and human civilization is over.
Second, no one is going after the handguns. The only handguns that are mentioned by the 2013 Assault Weapons Ban are the ones with threaded barrels. The ones you attach suppressors (silencers) to. The ones used by professional assassins. The ones that don't make sense from a self-defense point of view, because if you're defending yourself with a pistol, you want someone to hear the gunshots and call the police. So for all the self defense gun advocates, we're not even talking about your guns.
Third, a tote bag full of Glocks is a bit excessive, unless you happen to be Shiva the Destroyer. Then I guess you do have enough arms to make use of the entire bag full of Glocks. But something tells me that if you actually are Shiva the Destroyer, then you probably don't need anything as quaint as pistols.
And if this is some attempt to get women to oppose gun control, choosing a skinny peroxide blonde whose holster strap looks like a garter was a dumb idea. As is the idea that women want guns to defend themselves from rape. My understanding is that women want effective education policies, and competent policing and prosecution, so that they eventually get to live in a country where rape isn't a constant concern.
So to recap, Democrats want to build a world where women have equal access to the levers of power and renumeration, and a world where sexual violence never happens.
The conservative counter offer? A world where women have to carry sniper rifles and tote bags full of glocks just to remain un-raped.
Touche, conservatives. Touche. I don't know any sane woman who wouldn't choose to live a life so fraught with danger that she had no choice but to personally lug around more weapons than Shiva itself could comfortably use.
This is infuriating to me, personally.
When I was finishing up my last semester of school, I and my Fiancee lived in the next town. One of my best friends was raped at a party by a friend that we both trusted and ended up sleeping on my couch for several weeks, eventually dropping out of school.
I know what its like to watch someone you care about fall apart after sexual violence. I know what it's like to feel completely powerless to help someone you care about as the prosecution plods along. I know what it's like to find out that even after all of the horror and pain, the person you love isn't going to get justice, and that a plea bargain is the only way that the offender will see any consequences. I know what it's like to watch a defense attorney attempt to argue that an act of violence which left someone I cared about hospitalized and covered in bruises was consensual.
The tired old lie that rapes are committed by some unknown stranger is hugely damaging to victims. Most rapes are committed by someone that the victim knows and trusts. A family member. A lover. A friend.
And so this conservative idea needs to be exposed for the horror that it is. The conservatives are telling women here that in order to prevent rape, they need to carry a deadly weapon at all times, and be prepared to kill their family members, their lovers, or their friends.
That's the conservative message on rape.
I don't know that it's possible to be further out in far right field without jumping out of the stadium and into the parking lot.
