slabsides said,
From what I gather, Wisconsin lady is a middle-aged arthritic woman, not a hot-shot Rambo double-oooo spy type.
All things considered, she responded as well as she could. I for one will not criticise her, nor make assumptions I'm not entitled to, about what she would have/could have done.
You're right. With her arthritis, she never would have been able to handle a gun since she isn't a double-oooo spy type (sarcasm), but her husband thinks it would have helped. Me, I figured if she could handle a gun as indicated by her hubby and I figure that she could handle a metal stake, then she sure as heck could handle a knife, pepper spray, cell phone, or a variety of other items.
ESPECIALLY because she has physical problems and is less able to fight back based on her physicality she should have taken the time to better prepare herself.
Remember, that it was the husband claiming the wife was almost injured or killed, not the wife. The husband blamed the state for the wife not carrying a gun since it wasn't legal. I was simply pointing out that she had countless options that she could have considered long ago as a person living in a state that does not allow concealed carry and she has managed not to exercise any of them...hence the husband's sentiment that she could have protected herself had she been able to carry legally is bogus. Even if she had the license, the arthritis preventing her from all those other double-oooo spy things like pepper spray would have prevented her from practicing with her gun. Besides, she would have left it in the suburban and still would have had to grab the metal stake off the ground.
Even for the elderly and arthritic, guns are but one option that can be useful in self defense, but none of the options will do a darned bit of good if they don't have the skills to deploy and/or use them and if they don't have the physical items such as guns, knives, pepper spray, etc. on their persons when they need them.
Yes, the wife got away and that is really what matters, but then again, her potential attackers felt she was an easy mark and not likely to be able to defend herself and had she not made use of a metal stake found nearby, they would have been 100% right from the sounds of things.