In 1991, Suzanna Gratia Hupp was having lunch in a crowded cafeteria and had to watch as a gunman executed victims one by one, including her own parents. She reached for her purse to grab her revolver, only to realize it was sitting outside in her car — she’d left it behind to obey Texas gun laws. In her testimony, she later wrote, “The only thing the gun laws did that day was prevent good people from protecting themselves.” If Hupp had been armed, she might have been able to stop George Hennard, who murdered twenty-three people.
In cases like Suzanna’s, it’s easy to see how a gun could be necessary to defend against an armed assailant. However, living in Claremont, California, we rarely think about needing a gun on college campuses. Locked dorms, campus security and tight-knit communities make us feel safe. But that safety won’t extend beyond graduation. Outside the shelter of a college campus, Hupp needed protection and didn’t have it. While anyone could have been in her position, her experience highlights the necessity of access to and training with a firearm. When Hennard opened fire, a defensive gun could have drastically changed the situation. Without one, Suzanna could do nothing but try to escape.
While anyone may need a gun to protect themselves after undergraduate life, women are especially in need of such protection because of our physical weakness when compared to men. Men are, on average, physically stronger than women. Biological differences in muscle mass, bone density and testosterone levels consistently result in greater strength among men. Research shows that even untrained men are stronger than athletically trained women. As a wrestler and judoka, I’ve had a lot of experience with these differences. While I’ve had wrestling wins against boys, almost every male in my same weight class has been stronger than me.
Competing against men in wrestling and judo is difficult, but the stakes are much higher in the real world, where there aren’t any rules to the game.
Gun rights are women’s rights because they provide a means for women to defend themselves in a world of physical inequality. I might be able to throw a man in judo while under strict guidelines, but out on the street, there’s no gi to grip, and he may have a punch that I can’t defend against.
Women need access to guns to even the playing field when faced with physically stronger assailants. Consider the 57-year-old woman living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who was raped by Ronnie Preyer in October 2008. When this registered sex offender came back five days later to assault her a second time, she used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill him in self-defense. Take Melinda Herman, a Georgian wife and mother who protected her nine-year-old twins while her husband was at work, when Paul Slater, a thirty-two-year-old with an extensive criminal history, broke into her house with a crowbar. She shot him, saving her life and the lives of her children. Similarly, in Richmond, California, eighty-four-year-old Gustava Harvey fired a .38 caliber revolver when an intruder kicked down her door; the gunfire alone caused him to flee.
A gun neutralizes physical strength differences — what matters is not size, but the ability to act. There are numerous accounts of women of all ages protecting themselves, their children and their homes through the use of guns. Without a gun, these stories could have ended very differently. Without a weapon, women are forced to rely on physical strength they do not have; with a gun, they gain the immediate and equal capacity to defend themselves.
Many advocates for gun control believe that more guns inherently increase crime, suggesting that increasing gun ownership among women would be associated with more overall crime. However, there is little evidence to suggest that this would be the case. Women are significantly less likely than men to commit violent crimes overall. Men commit roughly 75-80 percent of violent crime and about 88-90 percent of homicides.
Furthermore, the “guns cause crime” view ignores evidence that firearms are also used defensively, often preventing crimes before they escalate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that defensive use of guns is at least as common as offensive use by criminals, and an estimated 500,000 to more than 3 million defensive gun uses occur annually. Defensive gun use, whether through firing or simply brandishing, can deter attackers and stop violence in real time — exactly the way women are most likely to use guns.
Gun control advocates also often argue that if no one had guns, violence during crime would decrease and women would be safer. However, this ignores the reality that certain types of violent crime can worsen in countries with strict gun control. Burglars in the United States are far less likely to target occupied homes than burglars in the United Kingdom.
Research suggests that this is largely due to fear of encountering an armed resident. In the United States, only 13 percent of burglaries occur when people are home, while in England and Wales, this number is 59 percent. Removing guns does not remove violence, and even in countries where guns are strictly regulated, women remain disproportionately victims of physical and sexual violence. Removing guns eliminates one of the few tools women have to effectively resist violence.
Ultimately, guns provide women with a practical and immediate means of self-defense against physically stronger male attackers. The defensive use of firearms can deter crime, interrupt attacks and reduce the likelihood of victimization. Women are statistically less likely to commit violence and are well-positioned to use firearms responsibly for protection.
With 52 percent of women in the United States being single and 56.8 percent of women working in the labor force, women are exercising their independence in an age of increased equality. Thus, being able to protect oneself through self-defense is a condition for equality. As many women at the 7Cs prepare for their careers in the outside world, they must consider how to protect their homes and livelihoods from threats. As Andrea Dworkin wrote, “women have the right to fight back.” I am a woman, and I neither want to be victimized by men or subordinate myself to men for protection. Feminism must include the right to self-defense, and that means supporting women’s access to firearms.
Grace Rutherford PO ’28 believes in the right to protect herself from imminent danger.
