Australia: Guns Rights are Women’s Rights

Australia. Every mass shooting that has happened in this country has ultimately led to a

conversation involving Australia and its civilian gun ban. Well here’s some interesting facts that have recently come to light due to the rape and murder of 22-year old comedian Eurydice Dixon. 1 in 5 women are raped every year in Australia. That number may sound familiar, as it’s the same statistic here in the United States. Now remember, USA has a population of 325.7 million people. Australia falls in at a mere 24.13 million. So how is it that a country with a fraction of the population of the top 3 most populated countries in the world rank as the 6^thhighest for sexual assault? Lets take a look at their approach to sexual assault and rape.

Victim Blaming

Women and victims of sexual assault are blamed for their attack based on how they

dressed, their choice to walk by themselves. Women are often incarcerated for self-defense against their attacker. Wait, what? Yes, you heard that right; women are imprisoned because they have fought back against an attacker. While their attacker gets off free. Well, if that wasn’t bad enough, Australia’s plan to put an end to the steady increase of rapes is to simply tell their men not to do it. Well, that will work, maybe, not so much.

Taking a Stand

After the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon, women have begun to speak out and

demand the right to protect themselves against their attackers. But looking into the culture of Australia, even if they were awarded the basic human right to protect themselves, chances are they would be incarcerated and imprisoned. Women have actually been fined for carrying pepper spray. Reminds me of a phrase I hear around often – “I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6”. I guess that’s the only option here for these women.

Future Generations

Students are the next vulnerable targets. In 2015-2016, 22,000 students reported in a survey that the experienced sexual assault in the college/university setting. Universities

have failed to properly support the victims and aid in their students in recovery and bringing their assailant to justice. And even then only about 3% of rapists end up in jail and for an average of 5 years. Most rapists are also repeating offenders and go on to rape multiple more women. What’s it going to take for the government in Australia to realize their women are being tortured and blamed?

Gun Rights ARE Women’s Rights

When 2A activists here in the states, especially women claim that 2A rights are women’s rights, this is exactly what we mean. When you speak to 2A feminists and women’s rights activists, this is what we fight for. We are the ones who are left vulnerable and attacked. Can we change the stigma of “boys will be boys”? Absolutely, but will it help? Not necessarily. Violence is a primitive human trait that through years of evolution morals have superseded and the average human knows that violence against another living being is wrong. But what about those that don’t? What about those humans that are going to hurt and harm anyway? How do we protect ourselves against them? We equalize the fighting ground. We learn self-protection. We carry firearms. We educate ourselves. We do better.

So next time someone brings up Australia and says, “look how good their gun ban worked”, show them these statistics. Explain how violent the country is towards women. Show them what happens when rights are taken away and the basic human right of self defense is not awarded to women in Australia. And then remind them what true feminism is about and what it means to truly care about women’s rights.