https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...hts-hearing-n2632549

Late last week, several women, including survivors of domestic violence, spoke in a congressional hearing about how gun control laws rob women of their right to self-defense.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance hosted the hearing titled, “Second Amendment Rights Empower Women’s Rights.”

“Female firearm ownership continues to grow in the United States,” committee Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said. “Women are turning to themselves to be their own first responders.”

Shirley Watral, the state director of the Florida Women For Gun Rights Organization, is a domestic violence survivor and professional firearms instructor. In the hearing, she shared how her views on gun ownership changed after how the man she was in love with kidnapped her and tortured her for 15 hours

Attempts I made to escape were met with beatings. I was no match for his size and strength. I was forced to stay seated or kneeling on the floor of the master bedroom. As the hours went by, I found no way out. I thought my salvation came when he brought out a gun and set it on the bed. Hours prior to this, no one heard my screams or came to my rescue. I saw the gun as my way to freedom. I could either use it to defend myself or get a shot off that the neighbors would hear.

Lack of knowledge of the fundamentals of a firearm were a disadvantage for me. My only goal was to get to the gun and press the trigger. I lunged for it and pressed the trigger to only hear myself screaming. It was like having the wind knocked out of me. The gun did not go off. I had lost my freedom in the blink of an eye, and now I lost my will to fight to regain it. I was defeated. I told him I give up and will do whatever he wants. He must have believed he had won and had control over me, so he let me go.

After surviving the beating, the biting, the whiplash from being thrown around by my hair, I took actions I believed would keep me safe. The restraining order I got did not stop him from contacting me and stalking me. I moved into a gated community, which did not stop him from gaining access and finding out where I lived. These things did nothing more than give me a false sense of security, just like gun-free zones and gun control laws. They are an illusion of safety.

I get frustrated when I see prosecutors reduce or drop charges, and judges give minimal sentences and put repeat offenders on the street making communities unsafe. Within the legal system self-defense is shifting in favor of the criminal. We need to hold people accountable for the laws they break, which are already on the books, before passing additional laws effecting responsible Americans. More gun control laws will not stop anyone who has killing and destruction in their heart.

You are protected by men and women armed with firearms every day. What about ordinary Americans who don’t have the luxury of having someone with them carrying a gun to protect us? You enjoy the comfort of being safe when you are surrounded by armed men and women. I have experienced feeling safe and it was nothing more than an illusion. I know the difference between a sense of security versus real security. The difference is me being able to defend myself with a firearm.

Watral added that killers target so-called “gun free zones” to commit violence because they know they will be met with the least amount of resistance. A study from the Crime Research Organization showed that 94 percent of mass public shootings have happened in gun-free zones from 1950 to March 27, 2023.

“If you want to help domestic violence victims, encourage them to prepare to defend themselves. Stop telling them they are not capable of handling a firearm, and scaring them with skewed statistics that only demoralizes them. Fund programs that offer training and arm the women,” Watral said. Gun control groups voice the possibility if a woman has a gun in a violent situation, it will be taken and used against her. That is a possibility. What is more probable is that she will be overpowered by a man based only on his strength. I need a tool to be my equalizer to defend myself, and I choose a firearm. I want it to be my choice, not that of the government. I want to be my own protector.”

Coincidentally, my wife, who traditionally has wanted to have nothing whatsoever to do with handguns (she has her own 20 ga. O/U shotgun), recently told me she now believes she'd like to learn how to shoot handguns.