Looking for a particular anti-self-defense quote

[Firehand]

Several years back a biggie in one of the feminist groups(I think NOW) was quoted as saying that for a woman to protect herself against an attacker with a gun made her as morally wrong as the attacker, continues the cycle of violence, etc. I've been trying to find it, no luck so far

Anyone know who/when and the actual quote? I've searched around and can't find it.

 

[charliem]

Is this it?

A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet

 

[another okie]

No, that's something one of us wrote and said it summarized what they said. I'll look for the one you mean.

Is it possible that it was something Janet Powell said? She's Australian.

 

[JackBurtonJr]

Feminist icon Betty Friedan denounces "the trend of women buying guns" as "a horrifying, obscene perversion of feminism." Friedan believes "that lethal violence even in self-defense only engenders more lethal violence, and that gun control should override any personal need for safety."

"Are You Safer With a Gun?"
by Ann Japenga, Health,
March/April 1994

 

[JackBurtonJr]

Another illustration of anti-gun (but not pro-control) disapproval of self-defense is a May 1977 article on guns published in Engage-Social Action Forum, the magazine of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. The editor of the magazine and author of the article, Rev. Allen Brockway, pleads that women should submit to rape rather than do anything that might imperil a rapist's life. Rhetorically posing the question, "Is the Robber My Brother," he answers in the affirmative, on the grounds that although the burglary victim or the

"...woman accosted in the park by a rapist is [not] likely to consider the violator to be a neighbor whose safety is of immediate concern ... [c]riminals are members of the larger community no less than are others. As such they are our neighbors or, as Jesus put it, our brothers.... [Though violent criminals act wrongfully,] it is equally wrong for the victim to kill, save in those extremely rare circumstances when the unambiguous alternative is one own's death."

Reverend Brockway's views are representative of the anti-gun movement and influential within it. Indeed, the most senior of the national gun control organizations, the National Coalition to Ban Handguns (NCBH) was created by the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church in 1976 when gun lobby complaints to the Internal Revenue Service threatened the Church's tax exemption. (NCBH has recently changed its name to Coalition Against Gun Violence to facilitate its current emphasis on banning rifles and shotguns as well as handguns.)

http://www.guncite.com/journals/bigsym.html

 

[SCKimberFan]

So let me see if I have this right - women should submit to rape because the man raping her is her brother?!? No wonder people are leaving churches by the carload!

 

[NG VI]

I have successfully shown my fiance that firearms can be incredibly useful, provided you are not an irresponsible fool. She loves my Model 28-2, and I plan on continuing to encourage her newfound interest in shooting and personal protection. Since she likes the 28-2 so much I think I will try to find her a good used J-frame (I just like blued steel, plus they are almost always cheaper than the newer S&W revos. If she wants a new stainless model though that is what she will get) to surprise her with for christmas. There was a 36 Ladysmith in excellent condition in the LGS a few months ago, I will have to check up on it and see if it is still there.

 

[AndyC]

Friedan believes "that lethal violence even in self-defense only engenders more lethal violence

I don't see how, if the assailant is dead.

 

[Firehand]

I keep thinking it was by Eleanor Smeal, was(is?) a bigshot with NOW, but I haven't been able to find it; my 'filing system' for keeping track of things like this has suffered a massive failure.

I appreciate the other ones, though, thanks guys.

 

[Deanimator]

I keep thinking it was by Eleanor Smeal, was(is?) a bigshot with NOW, but I haven't been able to find it; my 'filing system' for keeping track of things like this has suffered a massive failure.

I had the same problem, back before the anti-gunners in usenet were reduced to the status of Japanese hold-outs, skulking around at night, eating out of Filipino garbage cans. I had an EXTENSIVE set of quotes, including a file of nothing but embarrassing racist, anti-Semitic and similar quotes from particular individuals in FidoNet and talk.politics.guns and talk.politics.misc. I used to throw them back in their faces on a regular basis. One of them once accused me of "abusing the quoting system"... by EXACTLY quoting him. Another anti-gunner once threatened to sue me for something I said. I told him, "Go ahead; I'll subpoena EVERY word you've EVER said, in EVERY BBS, FidoNet echo and usenet newsgroup you've ever been on to back up what I say. That way, EVERY racial slur you've ever said here will be on the PUBLIC record." Strangely, he changed the subject in a hurry...