More Women Successfully Defending Themselves is One of the Biggest Wins for Gun Nation

By
Grace Stevens
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83

The 13 cases over a roughly two-week period are just a snapshot of how many women likely used a firearm to defend themselves. Self-defense gun cases often go unreported by major news outlets. Many cases involve people brandishing their firearm to deter a potential criminal, which can go unreported to police, experts have previously highlighted to Fox News Digital. 

Of the 13 cases compiled by [Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy] Swearer, more than half involved a woman defending herself from her romantic partner or ex. 

One such case in Texas involved a woman grabbing a pistol from her car’s console and firing a shot at her ex-boyfriend, who allegedly tried to shave her head with a pair of electric clippers on August 8, according to police. Another woman in Texas on July 30 pulled a firearm from her purse and shot her romantic partner in the face after he allegedly threatened her with a gun.

“A man who’d served 8 years in prison for domestic violence threatened to kill his wife during an ‘alcohol-fueled rage’ and went to get a gun. She apparently got to her gun first. He’s dead. She isn’t,” Swearer wrote of a case in Missouri that occurred on August 10. …

By gender, gun ownership is also booming among women. Between 2019 and 2021, as gun purchases exploded, about half of firearm customers were women, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Women were the most likely new gun-owner demographic during those years, researchers found.

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83 COMMENTS

  2. Wokeys want an end to “toxic masculinity.” Well, women capping their jackass abusers is a step in the right direction.

    I’m sure they’ll just argue that women are now embracing “toxic masculinity” if they aren’t already making that claim.

    • “women are now embracing “toxic masculinity””

      I could do with more of that sort of behaviour!!

  3. People need to be aware that ANYONE might be carrying. If the thought crosses your mind, “I should slap him/her”, the next thought should be “and I just might get shot”. When guns are ubiquitous, those impulsive fits of rage will either be suppressed – or the people who commit those fits of rage will be suppressed.

    Next question: How do I goad a liberal into slapping me?

      • I dont think you can shoot someone for slapping you though. Not that you were necessarily meaning that literally

        • “I dont think you can shoot someone for slapping you though.”

          If you genuinely feel your life is in danger, or you may be seriously injured…

        • “I don’t think you can shoot someone for slapping you though.”
          Sure you can. Dumb idea, though, if it’s just a slap in the vast majority of incidents.

          “If you genuinely feel your life is in danger, or you may be seriously injured…” (To Geoff, too)

          But you’ll certainly have to prove to the prosecutor that your life was truly in jeopardy, and in most cases where both parties don’t possess a deadly weapon of some sort- good luck if you’re the shooter.

          Dumb “advice”. Seek a second opinion…

        • Fortunately, Craig in IA is not a lawyer, because his advice can and will get you seriously injured or killed. There are and have been 1000s of incidents of justified firearms use in self defense. When the perpetrator was unarmed. Examples being man attacking female, attacking an elderly person, or just because the attacker was bigger or more physically capable of causing severe harm or death. Never second guess defending yourself, if you feel threatened. Those micro seconds lost may cost you your life or worse the life of a loved one. That is a regret you will never outlive.

        • Darkman- we were talking about a slap, not an attack with any sort of weapon, nor even some 300 lb slob grabbing a 95 lb chick. A BASIC SLAP.

          But maybe what we really need here is for a real city or district attorney prosecutor to weigh in. The story as was being discussed: 2 people argue, the unarmed one even perhaps being baited into the situation by the one who is armed. Then the unarmed one slaps the other, who draws his/her/its weapon and shoots the person on the spot.

          Should someone reading TTAG follow Darkman’s doctrine and then end up on the very short end of criminal and civil proceedings for shooting an unarmed person who slapped you, I suggest also bringing civil suit against Darkman for putting you up to it.

          Look what Darren Wilson, an LEO endured in Fergusson, MO for shooting a much larger, unarmed cretin who most-certainly would have caused him great bodily injury, if not death, had he (Brown) gotten his hands on him. And leave the LEO part out because I’m betting the same would have happened to any Caucasian who would have done likewise in Fergusson, or the vast majority of US metro areas. No racism intended, just being realistic when assessing the prosecutor(s) who call the shots.

          AGAIN, I’d think twice before shooting someone for slapping me. And after thinking twice and I didn’t think I could take the aggressor, hand-to-hand, I’d likely walk away. YMMV.

        • Craig – part of self defense law is ‘disparity of force’. If the slapper is bigger, stronger, etc then the ‘slappee’ if the ‘slappee’ fears for their life, the slapper having a weapon is irrelevant.

    • Yeah, well tough guy it might surprise you that more than 2 or 3 liberals carry guns. When you’re out goading liberals choose wisely.

      • They want to make the claim, “Words are violence!”

        Misgender one of them and see what kind of violence you get IMMEDIATELY!

        Of course they are in almost all cases (almost/antifa) unwilling or unable to engage in actual violence, preferring to try to convince government authorities to do that for them.

      • Since there is no such thing as Trans. Just be aware that anyone believing they are, is a mental illness. Being So, they often become unstable and act out both emotionally and violently. There are many instances of it occurring on YouTube and other social media platforms.

        • “Since there is no such thing as Trans. Just be aware that anyone believing they are, is a mental illness.”
          You would likely have to convince the Progressive, Leftist judiciary of this, and the track record around many large states and nearly every large metro area is not very good to date.

          I’m not arguing- but what has been reality for 5000 years cannot be relied upon at present. One might spend their entire wealth and estate to win this case today and still come out in second place in many jurisdictions.

        • Well, it is a mental illness, they even wrote it down in a book called the DSM-5. But, it turns out that although a mental illness that not all of them are ‘crazy’.

          But on the other hand a lot of them can become unhinged rather quickly if they are misgendered.

          We were on a short road trip over a weekend about four months ago now. Got off the interstate and stopped in a city for something to eat, decided on a restaurant and went in.

          We get seated, order our meal, and when the server came with the food it wasn’t the same person who took the order. Instead it was this big burly thing that was obviously a man, but dressed like a woman. Makeup (pretty good job on the makeup though so lots of practice, my wife told me) and long hair down the back in a pony tail, and this kinda weird fake sounding higher pitch female’ish voice, and for some reason was having a bad day with the bra because one was very obviously lower than the other and down at about a 45 degree angle from the other so probably some kind of ‘falsie’ thing that slipped and no real surgery yet. Server put the food down, walked away but had forgotten part of the order and I said “excuse me sir, part of our order is missing.” Oh boy, if exploding fireworks could be expressed in the way someone looked at you then this person was exploding inside.

          Server retorts, exclaiming in a low growl: “Its not sir, its miss!”

          I retort : “You sure?”

          Server stomps off slamming things around and knocked over a few chairs, sobbing uncontrollably. So wife and I have decided we are going to leave and go eat someplace else, and sure we would need to pay for what we had gotten first but we wanted us out of there in case this ‘server’ decided to come back to vent anger. So I throw some cash on the table, enough to pay for the order based upon menu prices and the sales tax plus, and we start to hi-tail it out of there when the manager approaches us.

          Manager: “Ya’ll leaving?”

          Me: “yes, I left the money on the table. Just want out of here before your server decides to vent his anger physically and i’m forced to put a stop to it.”

          Manager: “Yes, I got the money. He’s not coming back, he left.”

          Me: “He did?”

          Manager: “Yes.”

          My wife: “Has he ever gotten violent with a customer when he got upset?”

          Manager: “Your meal is on the house, here’s your money back. Have a good day.”

          So we leave, head down the street to another restaurant and eat. Then head back to the interstate to continue our road trip. On the way back to the interstate there are five police cars and an ambulance. The ‘server’ is being cuffed and put in a car, a guy pretty bloody looking is on the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance, its not a car accident.

          Inquired later when we got home – turns out server attacked guy at bus stop when guy at bus stop said “He fella, whats wrong? You OK?” upon seeing the server crying after he left the restaurant after our encounter.

    • Everyone should go to the website “Law of self defense.con
      Attorney Andrew Branca has a very simple 5 point system to determine when deadly force self defense is allowed.

      You can only use deadly force when faced with a deadly force attack.
      In all 50 states, a simple slap or even a punch is a non deadly force attack and you cannot respond with deadly force.
      You can only respond with non deadly force like pepper spray, punching or slapping back or even using a baton to the extremities.
      Unless the attacker has some huge disparity of size or numbers.

      And it is legal to shoot an unarmed person, if he presents a deadly force attack.
      You don’t even need to get a scratch.
      If he approaches you trying to strangle you (a deadly force attack) go ahead and shoot.
      Not only do you need to be in fear for your life, that fear has to be reasonable to a jury.

      But a simple slap fight or punching fight between similar sized opponents is not a deadly force attack.

      • “But a simple slap fight or punching fight between similar sized opponents is not a deadly force attack.”

        It could be if the assailant has training. People have been killed with a single punch or other blow from the hands or feet. How can one know if the assailant has such training and is therefore a lethal threat? If you fear for your life, shoot. Worry about convincing a jury later. You can’t face the jury if you’re dead.

        Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so take this advice at your own risk.

      • I am not a lawyer but I did work in courts for over twenty years. I know Branca claims to be an attorney but anyone who prefaces his name with Lawyer or Attorney, reminds me of the chain letters I used to get which started out with “Attorney So&So of Cold Butte, Montana says that this letter is perfectly legit” or some such verbiage. I have read his musings and he is wrong. There is such a a thing as disparity of force and most states that I am aware of recognize that it exists. You don’t get a freebie punch. You don’t get a freebie slap. If you are younger than the slapee, if you a bigger than the slapee, if you have some kind of martial arts trainee that the slapee doesn’t have, that is known in the law as disparity of force. Please do not rely on the advice of an internet attorney. He can’t know the laws in all 50 states and let me tell you, they vary widely. If he claims to have researched the penal codes of all 50 states, doubt his statement. That’s the first clue that he doesn’t know what he is talking about when he gives generalized legal advice. If you want to know what the laws are in your state, look up the penal code on line. PLUS read the annotations in the small print under the penal code section your are perusing. Example: In CA possession of a shoji-zoe is a felony. A what? I thought I was familiar with ninja weapons but that was a new one on me. However under the footnotes was a CA Supremes decision regarding that dangerous ninja weapon of mass destruction. Looked it up. The CA Supremes decided in their infinite wisdom that if one had an agricultural use for a shobi-zoe, it was King’s X and you were thereby delivered a Get-Out-of-Jail- Free card. I discovered reading that section that I was indeed in possession of that deadly ninja weapon of mass destruction — BUT! I had a GOOJF card. I had constructed it so that I could track gopher burrows in my back yard, thus establishing an agricultural use for my NWOMD. No, I am not going to tell you what the CA definition of a shoji-zoe is. You will have to find out for yourself.

  4. Everyone is better off as more people arm themselves. I’m happy to see more women engaging themselves and refusing to be victims. Fighting back is key to the craziness out there.

    • Well my wife claimed one of my gats. She’s quite a good shot & very strong. Also she taught self-defense to women at a YWCA years ago & is quite strong. Realize the biblical command “do not kill” is mistranslated. In Hebrew it is “don’t murder”🙄

      • “Realize the biblical command ‘do not kill’ is mistranslated. In Hebrew it is ‘don’t murder’ ”

        That is correct. The actual translation is don’t murder and not don’t kill. The actual wording was in Hebrew and (Hebrew Scripture, Exodus 20:13) was ‘Lo tirtzach’ which means ‘Do not murder”. So the the Sixth Commandment is actually “THOU SHALT NOT MURDER” and not “THOU SHALT NOT KILL.”

      • Very true. It is pretty hard to square “thou shalt not kill” with “kill every living thing inside the walls of Jericho”

        • “It is pretty hard to square “thou shalt not kill” with “kill every living thing inside the walls of Jericho”

          Yep, just one of the many instances of hypocrisy in the Bible. For folks who claim abortion is baby killing and wrong, they sure do celebrate Jehovah ordering the murder of countless babies.

          Of course, there is no commandment against genocide so it’s A-OK to travel to distant exotic lands, meet strange and colorful people and kill them for their property.

          “Hallelujah, what’s it to ya!”

        • miner. I claim no religion. But for you to slam any religion when you put your faith is .gov is ludicrous. Nobody murders like .gov does.

          Armenian genocide. The final solution. How many 5 year plans?

          I’m not defending religion. But you sure live in a glass house when it comes to the rock throwing.

        • I dunno about you, jwm, but I always solicit the opinions of atheists when I need an “expert” view on religion.

          Of course, I take advice from arsonists on fire safety. Because I have no brain.

        • “for you to slam any religion”

          I am not slamming any religion, just relating the events as they are recorded in the old testament.

          Numbers 31:17-18 KJV

          “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”

          The Lord God’s commandment was “kill every male among the little ones“.

          I know it is discomforting to many on this list when I point out the actual facts of history, such as the fact that Thomas Jefferson was a child rapist and Jehovah is a mass baby killer.

          But those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.

        • Cute, miner. You did not learn the outcome of being a fascist from history so you’re making the same crimes as your buddies did in Germany under hitler.

        • MINOR Miner49er. When you are at war with some country, s H I T happens. An atheist no slamming a religion? Since when?

    • Robert Heinlein: “An armed society is a polite society.” In case you don’t recognize the name, a famous science fiction writer of my boyhood.

  6. It is good to see the heritage foundation publicly recognizing the danger toxic masculinity poses.

    “more than half involved a woman defending herself from her romantic partner or ex“

  7. “who allegedly tried to shave her head with a pair of electric clippers”

    In MD the GA would say she should’ve just let him do it. No need to defend herself no matter what he did even after finishing that. They’ve already said that if you find yourself in a fight, no matter how much larger and/or stronger your opponent, you do not have the right to defend yourself, just take your beating and head for the hospital when it’s over if you’re still alive.

    • “In MD the GA would say she should’ve just let him do it. No need to defend herself“

      You may be thinking of a certain Republican politician:

      “Michigan GOP candidate says he tells daughters to ‘lie back and enjoy it’ if rape is inevitable
      Robert Regan, a Republican favored to win a seat in the Michigan House, made the comments while trying to make an analogy about abandoning efforts to decertify the 2020 election“

      Or maybe you were talking about a certain Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate:

      “From a 1990 New York Times article: “[Clayton] Williams made the remark … while preparing for a cattle roundup at his West Texas ranch. He compared the cold, foggy weather spoiling the event to a rape, telling ranch hands, campaign workers and reporters around a campfire, ‘If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.'” Williams lost to Ann Richards eight months later.“

      Wait a minute, you might be talking about this Republican politician:

      “The GOP Senate nominee who came within a hair of beating Sen. Harry Reid in 2010 once affirmed that if you are a victim of rape who has become pregnant as a result, you just need to “have a little faith.” When a radio host asked her, in January 2010, whether she believed in abortion for cases or rape or incest, she responded, “You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.”

      Here it is, a Republican DA:

      “Five years before he was the Republican challenger to incumbent Senator Michael Bennet, Ken Buck, as a district attorney, declined to prosecute a rapist for less-than-solid reasons. To wit: Although the assailant in question admitted to police that his victim had had told him, “No,” before he raped her, Buck concluded that the facts of the case were enough to convince a jury that the victim was merely experiencing “buyer’s remorse.” He also appeared to blame her for the assault in a conversation she taped and leaked to the media. Buck only narrowly lost to Bennet.“

      Really, it’s difficult to say for sure, there are just so many Republicans who advise women to not resist violent assaults.

      • And yet Miner49, you still hate women so much that you would rather them be raped and seriously injured or killed rather than having a firearm to defend them selves – and you still ignore the context of the post of VNVet69 and cherry picked to make your inane point that there are unsavory people in the world.

        Great job showing how completely stupid you are Miner49er.

        Why do you hate women so much that you want them to suffer and die?

        • He could write a book on just ted kennedy’s mistreatment of women. Not just the one he drowned.

          But teddy was a member of miners bunch. So he gets a pass.

        • never mind Hunter participating in human trafficking, and actually using tax payer dollars to do it complete with Joe’s blessing and assistance.

        • “you would rather them be raped and seriously injured or killed rather than having a firearm to defend them selves“

          Sadly, your statement is just another of your craven lies.

          I’ve never advocated that women not be permitted to possess or carry firearms, I think it’s a great idea if they are non-felons adults who have had both classroom and live fire range training.

          Try again.

        • And if they don’t have the ‘classroom and live fire training’? What about poor women. Inner city women.

          Or does your largesse only extend to the wealthy, white privileged?

          How many taxes and tests on a right, miner?

        • MINOR MIner49er. You don’t advocate for any one having a firearm do you? Training? Training is great, but people have certain levels of adapting to training and it varies from person to person.
          While I an a bit proponent of training for everyone, it still should be VOLUNTARY. Most gun owners unfortunately do not do any training other than punch holes in a paper target. Training takes on a whole gambit, from dry fire to actual training in a classroom and the range.
          Tell us, how much training have you had?

      • And the DA in Oakland, CA who happens to be a woman is recommending that women get air horns to sound when they are being attacked. The young lady who was attacked by two thugs in a parking lot sure had a lot of opportunity to get an air horn out and sound it. By the way, the DA in Oakland is a George Soros backed candidate and there is a strong movement to have her drummed out of office only 7 months after obtaining the post. Oakland is another CA cesspool.

      • MINOR Miner49er. Let’s face it. People in both major parties have slips of the tongue. Just look at Sleepy Joe. Every time he opens his mouth.
        And there are “radicals” in both parties. Just look at yourself? You are a radical S O C I L I S T. And your loose lips often show us your true colors.

  8. OT, sort of – caption on pic of sniffer-in-chief, “president pets cadaver dog”.

    So did the pooch alert? Inquiring minds want to know.

  9. The fascist left is not about women’s rights. They proved that when they allowed ‘trans’ male athletes, 3rd rate at best, to destroy women’s sports. They showed an amazing disregard for women. But not the first time.

    miner49er recently brought an opinion of Jefferson’s on this site to justify suppressing people’s rights. Jefferson the slave owner was apparently miners go to guy. Birds of a feather…..

    • Can we stop repeating this “Jefferson the slave owner” Liberal talking point?

      Jefferson pointed out in his autobiography that he was a RELUCTANT slave owner of those inherited from his father that he could not free due to Virginia laws at the time. He also came into “ownership” of his wife’s slaves when they were married.

      IN addition, he understood that simply freeing a slave in those times left them seeking employment they were not educated/trained for in a society that was extremely bigoted against them, even after being freed.

      Another issue he pointed out was that there was no way to protect them from being kidnapped and sold back into slavery at some remote location.

      It was for these reasons that he that it more humane on his part to keep them and allow them to work on his plantation, not because he thought slavery was a god thing. He in fact fought as hard as he could to stop slavery and was forced to remove such language from the Declaration of Independence before the southern states would agree to sign it.

    • “The fascist left is not about women’s rights.”
      Exactly, and in the very near future, women (or at least those who would’ve qualified as female during the 1970s) will have lost all gains made, actual or imagined, if current trends in “gender” are allowed to proceed. We will all be one- being designated as equal in every respect, with intact females relegated to being baby factories if, and when the elite determine another human being should be allowed on the planet. Unless, of course, the same anti-reality elite can actually figure out how to knock up a woman who was born with, and still has, a crank.

      • MINOR Miner49er You have been caught in so many lies, I don’t think you have a clue what the truth is.

      • Nope boycott your “PROPAGANDA”!!!

        Everything you post on this site, is unadulterated “PROPAGANDA”!!!

        You would have made Hitler/MAO/Mussolini/Stalin “PROUD”!!!

  12. “More women successfully defend themselves.”
    And the problem is? When Billy Bob, or RayRay find out Momma has a pistol and is pointing it at his sorry self, he may decide discretion is the better part of valor and being the cowards most abusers are, leave the scene. And, domestic violence is a major factor in my personal refusal to support any waiting periods for purchase. If a woman is being stalked or threatened by a boyfriend or spouse, she should be able to purchase the best protection ever made immediately if not sooner. Restraining or protective orders are worth less than the paper they’re printed on. No piece of paper ever stopped a fist, knife or bullet.
    As for the so called toxic masculinity crap, no male who beats on their spouse, girlfriend, etc. is in any way masculine or worthy of being called a man. They’re just punks who need their asses kicked hard enough to put their kidneys up around their shoulders. Even as an old man, I’d be happy to demonstrate how it’s done.
    Next lowlife who needs to catch a lead pill is those who would rape a woman, molest a child, or harm the elderly.

  13. I can understand self defence but o when one party is DEAD how do you decide the actual truth of the incident unless there are witnesses. ? ALLEGEDLY is NOT an excuse for a shooting. DRUNKENNESS alone is NOT an excuse for a shooting and women are just as likely to REVENGE SHOOT as men are.
    Most of the resulting comment are all about self-justification . The point being that if somebody has a GUN already pointed at you and their first intent is to do you harm you do not have a chance in Hell at any kind of SELF DEFENCE WHY. Because if you do you are DEAD but if you are NOT dead then the intent is NOT to killyou . Going for you firearm like some wannabe WESTERN HERO does only one thing – it turns an incident where the first intent is NOT to kill because if it was you’d allready be dead into one where it assuredly IS. Which nis of course why most gun ownerws DO NOT ”go for their piece’ so what exactly was the point of a handgun in their pocket in the first place?

    By the way I’ve read quite a lot about THOMAS JEFFERSON. There was absolutely NO reason as to why he could not have paid is ‘slaves’ a decent and competetive wage. and give them the protection of the LAW. But no HE WANTED TO CONTINUE with CHEAP LABOUR . Like so many he indulged in SELF JUSTIFICATION to l keep his bloody money. The was by the way also a MEMBER nof the notorious HELLFIRE CLUB in BRITAIN and a sexual deviant to say the least
    Did you know that MORE BLACKS were lynched in the NEW YORK CONSCRIPTION RIOTS than in the SOUTHERN STATES ?. –

    • Albert, Please do us all a big favor? Don’t ever come to the US. We have enough lunatics here now.
      For a man who claims to be an “expert” on firearms, you don’t know about something called ballistics, forensics and a few other very pertinent subjects. Witnesses are not usually the best way to get to the truth of what has happened for various reasons. A witness may not have a proper angle to view what actually occurred. Not to mention that eye witness testimony without any corroboration is borderline useless.
      There have been HUNDREDS if not thousands of instances where a gun was held on someone and the good guy still won out. You can read about them in American newspapers every day. But then you are an “expert”, right? For your information, it’s all about timing and opportunity. If someone is intent on killing you and pointing a gun in your direction, he already fired.
      Those lynchings you spoke of occurred in the 1860’s. Not do us all a large favor and GET LOST!
      Clearly, you don’t know squat about what you are talking about. But then you are a Leftist Brit.

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