College girls step out against violence, but do they stand up for self-defense?

By Chad D. Baus

“Out of the dorms and into the streets, we won't be raped, we wont be beat!” proclaimed the women of Athens and Ohio University as they swarmed campus and surrounding streets. The threat of night storms or the jeers of onlookers didn’t stop the women from “Taking Back the Night,” for the annual march and rally protesting violence against women.

In the United States, a woman is raped every six minutes and battered every 15 seconds, said Clarissa Kornell of OU Amnesty International in her opening speech on the West Portico of Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium....

Thus begins an article in The (Ohio University) Post, describing an event that has been occurring on the campus since 1979.

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The march, with the theme “Side by Side: Not Ahead or Behind,” began with a silent walk down Jeff Hill in honor of victims and survivors of sexual violence. Once the group reached the bottom of the hill, they blew out the flames on their candles and exploded in chant and drumming through East Green. Passersby on East Green clapped in support of the women.

So the 150 women who "took back the night" may have felt empowered for an hour or two. But how will they feel the next time they are alone and defenseless on that same dark street? What have marchers accomplished in terms of tangible improvements to anyone's safety?

Click 'Read More' for the entire story.

“I hope the women who participated and observed the march take this amazing empowerment throughout the year and realize it’s not just one night of thinking about sexual violence and equal rights,” Kaylor said.

No, it's not just one night of thinking about these things. For Second Amendment advocates, it is 24/7/365. And to their discredit, we usually find ourselves fighting groups like these every step of the way.

When stalker victims, etc. seek to have their names kept out of the newspaper for no other offense than having obtained a concealed handgun license in order to protect themelves, will these organizers come to their defense? When gun owners seek to recover the right to self-defense for college women and men on their campuses, will the people behind this march fight along side us?

Or will it be more of the same from those who are typically all about sound and fury, signifying nothing? I'm not holding my breath.