Woman 2, thugs 0

Here’s a good news story for the day—a woman who comes out 2-0 ahead in what, without the great equaliser, could well have been goodnight.

One gun isn't enough.
   “That was what Linda Smith (a pseudonym) was thinking after two thugs broke into her Oklahoma apartment. One was holding a weapon … at her throat, and the other was pacing back and forth while holding her purse and demanding her money and valuables. She screamed, and was told if she screamed again, she'd be dead.
    “She was doing as police recommend in robberies –- comply with a robber's demands. But her Lady Smith & Wesson .38 special, which she carries by permit, was hidden in her purse –- and the purse was being held by one of the attackers.
    “Then the situation, suddenly, got much, much worse: One of the robbers demanded that she take off her clothes. 
    “‘Come on, what are you waiting for,’ he told her as he started to yank on her sweatpants, trying to take them off.
    “Smith pleaded for her safety and distracted the attackers by telling them she would get her money, which was ‘in my purse.’
    “The robbers inexplicably allowed her to drop to her knees and crawl across the floor to her purse, which the second attacker had dropped.
    “She reached inside, and the first shot was clear of the muzzle and into the torso of one of the attackers before she even pulled the weapon clear of the purse. Four more shots followed shortly and, in the end, one of the attackers was dead and the second was hospitalized facing a murder rap for having participated in a felony in which someone died.
    “Smith … explained she comes from a family that believes in self-reliance and courage…”

…unlike the people who, in New Zealand, have been successful in disarming women even from carrying mace. Or a taser.

I really hate to quote the matchstick-like Ann Coulter on this (or anything), but on this, gosh-darn it, she’s exactly right:

  Guns are our friends, because in a world without guns I'm what is known as prey. Almost all females are. Any male -- even the sickliest 98-pound weakling -- could overpower me in a contest of brute force against brute force. For some reason, I'm always asked whether I wouldn't prefer a world without guns. No, I'd prefer a world in which everyone is armed, even the criminals who mean to cause me harm. Then I'd at least have a fighting chance. 
    “What the arms-control faithful really want is a world without violence, not a world without weapons. These are the ideological descendants of the authors of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which purported to outlaw war. But we can't have a world without violence, because the world is half male and testosterone causes homicide. A world with violence -- that is to say, with men -- but without weapons is the worst of all possible worlds for women. As the saying goes, God made man and woman; Colonel Colt made them equal.” [Emphasis in the original.]

Let’s hear it for sisters being able to defend themselves. Like Cowboy Kate*…

* … who I’m required to say bears no relation whatsoever to Cactus Kate.  None at all. Honest.