I want you to think about all of the women in your life. You do not have to think of every specific name and image, just a rough estimate of how many women you know. How many of these women do you think experience sexual violence? An eighth, maybe a quarter? In Connecticut alone 50% of women fall victim to sexual violence exculding rape as conducted by Connectiuct Alliance To End Sexual Violence.

That number is probably much greater than most people anticipate and certainly an eye opener. Society must do more to protect the lives of women, but until that happens, we must take matters into our own hands. There is a way for us to protect ourselves in these violent situations. Concealed carry for women should become practiced more and accepted by society as normal and a defense mechanism since we are the most common victims of sexual violence.

A lack of education around gun ownership is a main contributor as to why women do not currently practice concealed carrying. Some may be surprised to even learn that concealed carry in Connecticut has always been legal, as long as the person carrying has a valid permit on them when carrying. 

Of all the reasons why people own firearms “protection tops the list, with 67%” of owners saying this is the primary factor in their ownership as concluded by the Pew Research Center. Despite protection being the number one cause for people owning firearms, and women being the most subjected gender to sexual violence, women own guns at a significantly lower rate than men. 

The most common weapon owned by women for protection is pepper spray. While I am a strong supporter of this practice, there are many flaws in this defense technique. A situation that occurred at my high school involved a student pepper spraying another student. All who were involved know the side effects that followed. Many students with asthma were immediately sent to the nurse, the hallway and surrounding walkways had to be evacuated, and the school was unable to be reopened the rest of the day. 

So in a real life situation where someone is using pepper spray, it is likely to affect the victim just as much as the attacker. This could make it difficult for the victim to safely escape. While pepper spray is a good way for women to protect themselves, especially considering the training required to own a firearm in Connecticut, firearms pose greater benefits in the event of an attack. 

Gender norms are another contributing factor as to why women do not typically own guns. When society typically thinks of a woman, they usually seem to be delicate and incapable of harm, everything that a gun is not. This stereotype should not be something that gets in the way of a woman being able to protect themselves against sexual violence. 

A woman should be able to feel comfortable in her own enviroment free of worry about sexual violence. We should be able to feel comfortable protecting ourselves in moments of danger, despite gender norms that give our attackers the upper hand. Protection should not be a concept that breaks social guidelines, especially when the livelihood of so many women are endangered. 

I am very aware of the reasons why a woman, or anyone in general, would be opposed to owning and using a firearm when being attacked. There is a great deal of training involved and it could be very frightening to own something that could endanger the life of someone else. However, we must be prepared for being involved in such a situation especially when half of all women in Connecticut are victim to sexual violence, which is truly enraging. 

Too many women are affected by sexual violence in our own community to wait for someone else to put an end to this distruction. Until action from our government is taken to protect us, we must protect ourselves.