by Jessica Lora
On April 29th, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and the Heritage Foundation hosted Gayle Trotter at the April Conservative Women's Network luncheon. Gayle spoke on why it is important for women to have the right to bear arms.
Gayle started her speech by quoting part of the Constitution's 2nd amendment: "The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." According to Gayle, the Founding Fathers believed that each citizen has the right to protect him or herself.
Yet, many liberals believe that the Constitution should be changed to take away this right. As American citizens, we hear from the media and politicians that guns should be banned. This is especially true after horrific incidences involving mass shootings and death. Gayle admitted "it's hard to speak on the 2nd amendment after someone has lost their life." But the truth is that the majority of mass shootings have occurred in gun-free zones. If a law abiding citizen had a gun, they could potentially have stopped the tragedy in the first place.
Gayle's biggest message to the audience was that guns are the great equalizer. Guns actually make women safer and reverse violence. Gayle cited a statistic that 90% of all violent victim attacks occur without hand guns being present. Meaning that if the victims involved were carrying guns, they could potentially have stopped their attackers. To illustrate, Gayle told a story of a young mother faced with intruders breaking into her home. The mother frantically called the police to come help her but they responded that they would not make it in time. Luckily, this mother had a gun on hand and was able to protect herself and her young baby.
Gayle also included CBLPI speaker Amanda Collins' story, a young college student at the University of Nevada, Reno. Amanda was raped one night while walking to her car after class. On Amanda's college campus guns are prohibited, and like a law abiding citizen, she left hers at home despite her concealed carry permit. Amanda believes that if she had her gun that night, she could have stopped her attacker.
Gayle ended her speech by saying "every woman deserves a fighting chance." Gayle said that the point of her telling statistical data and stories of women being in danger wasn't to convince everyone in the audience to go buy a fire arm. Instead, she made it clear that as citizens we should have the right to choose whether or not to bear arms.
Jessica Lora is a 2016 Spring intern at CBLPI.