This is surely the most insane idea. If women were to massively arm themselves with hand guns against possible attack it will not end up with lots of dead men, as the professional male victims like to fantasize, but with lots of dead women.

Women will be killed or seriously maimed BEFORE they even knew there was a threat.

It is a romantic notion that arming yourself is any protection against a bad person. Said bad person who intents to commit a crime expecting a probable threat of being shot is not deterred, he arms himself with bigger better stuff and shoots first. Criminals are not deterred by jail, why would a gun in an amateur's hand be more of a threat? Criminals too can take preventative action.

As JD I love going about in nature, especially alone. The men who are intend on randomly attacking a strange woman exist, but fortunately are few and far between. Like JD, the men I've come across are interested and interesting.

It is as Nita points out. We are so inundated with stories of violent crime that we are beginning to believe that this is the norm. Not an aberration.

Women walking alone need to be aware of the surroundings and the places where they do this.

We need fewer guns, not more. As Romany points out, guns wreak a terrible toll on depressed men with access to a gun, a gun is often implicated in male suicide.

Suicide rates have little to do with availability of guns. As can be seen in the following table:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

many countries with a high suicide rate have restricted, or very restricted, access to firearms, for example Japan. It's notable that, with the exception of China, male suicide rates outweight the female by, in some countries, considerable margins.

Suggesting that "restrictive gun laws" reduces suicide is simplistic in the extreme.

Right on Yvonne!

Health Watcher, Walking and jogging is supposed to be fun. If some women feel so threatened that they feel the need to carry a gun, I'd sugggest a different activity for them. Running at night is probably inadvisable as you can't see where you are putting your feettreading on a broken bottle or a snake which are a more likely occurence than encountering a volient male. Of course women do make risk assessments. I wouldn't walk through our civic centre at midnight on my own, and I keep a bit of a lookout for drunk yobs, but arming myself in advance is extreme.

Pelican sadly if we took this statement to it's logical conclusion, then women's worlds would become sadly impoverished.

"As a woman, the reality is that it is unsafe to walk alone in a secluded area and to abstain. It might be unfair but sometimes life is unfair and you take your enjoyment where you find it or organise your activities to reduce the risk".

In this world, I shouldn't garden out the front for instance in case I'm spotted by a nutter in my empty street, drive a bus or a taxi or travel in one in case it emptied except for one other person, participate in bush walking that has given me a great deal of pleasure for most of my life, and those rural women who spend much of the day by themselves should move into town immediately in case a nutter drives in. My risk of meeting a violent man bush walking, may even be the same as being the victim of violence from a bungled break-in, but nobody suggests I live in a cell with bars to keep bad people out.

To be continued...

The fear of the stranger is vastly exaggerated. Attacked women almost always have some connection with the abuser. So if we arm women, they would be firing at father's, brothers, lovers, work mates etc. They might end on murder charges trying to prove that it was self defence. Their men would likely have access to the woman's gun too and use it against her and on people coming to her aid. It also raises the stakes if he has taken the gun. The stranger would be harder to talk down, because that he was in deep trouble apart from the initial gun snatching assualt. In the domestic situation, the bloke would know that she is more likely to leave or call the cops this time, when maybe she hadn't before, because it would be a huge wake-up call to her that the man is dangerous. The outcomes to the women may be worse as a result.

If I gave up walking on my own, then I'd probably be more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, depression, bone loss and I'm sure lots of other nasties and die earlier of them, a sure risk, instead of an unlikely 'maybe'. I've also never had a Park Ranger say, 'gosh you shouldn't be here on your own, the woods are full of rapists', rather they seem very pleased I'm using the trails and many of them are women who are also out there by themselves a bit.

I have a very sane friend. But the fear of his family being the victims of a terrorists means he won't take them to theme parks. Another friend feels it is alright for the anti-terrorist police to question members of groups such as Amnesty when they plan their community events, which I think is flagrant nonsense. There are terrorists out there, but here the fear of them is out of proportion to the risk - like feeling the need to carry a gun jogging. We risk losing more freedoms and making the world a more dangerous place for ourselves through unnecessary fear than from actual risks.

Sorry JL, I misspelled that before.

It is exactly as you say and Nita. We are being made to be so afraid that we are becoming quite comfortable with all sorts of infringements on our freedoms. Whether enacted by law or self-imposed.

After a few years of working in a busy big city hospital Intensive Care Unit I suddenly found myself actually expecting something horrendous to happen to those near and dear to me. Serious injury and death always came suddenly and unexpectantly. It surely was only a matter of time before it would happen in my world. The waiting almost became unbearable. That's when I realized it was time for me to expand my horizons and work in another field.

We are inundated with the most awful violence, in entertainment and selective news. I recently watched Clockwork Orange again. My children are young adults and teenagers. What shocked me was how tame I found this movie this time around. A movie that I remembered as having had quite an impact on me way back when.

Women have little to fear from strangers. As JL said: violence most often comes from known persons. That is for both women and children. Is this true for men as well? Probably.

The last thing Australia needs is to foster an American style guns-for-self-protection culture. Guns for target shooting or hunting yes, not for shooting potential human attackers.

JL Deland

My statement was not meant to imply that womens' lives need to be impoverished or overly restricted due to imagined or perceived fears. I was talking in the context of this article that if there is a real threat to women in a particular area then arming them is not the answer. As Yvonne said this activity would, based on experience, result in more women than perpetrators being killed.

My statement in regard to organising activities to reduce risk is exactly what others have said about being aware of your surroundings. Taking stupid risks is what I was alluding to and should have said as much.

A very long time ago, I was stalked and chased in a suburban railway station very late at night because I chose to take a risk and catch a train around midnight. Not a good idea as it turned out. A stupid thing to do, but I was young and 'invincible' but luckily I was very fit and outran the moron. I will never forget the look in his face though and his determination.

I became more careful as a result but not restrictive in any way. Men can also be victims of muggings and might choose not to walk down a particular alley way late at night for the same reasons. This does not mean we live in constant fear or panic. :)