Meet Autumn Parkin. She’s a mother of three from Boise, Idaho–and she’s a gun rights advocate. She didn’t always use to be this way. In her profile video with The Blaze, she admits that she comes from a liberal background, she did not grow up with firearms in her home, and she pretty much felt that no one needed to own firearms - only the police and criminals had them. It’s the typical mindset of a liberal. Yet, all of these views came into question when she was brutally raped by two of her classmates in high school. Parkin was only 15-years-old.
She admits that she had a mindset that “violence is never going to find me.” Parkin tried to fight off her attackers, but said she wasn’t able to thwart off the both of them. Six years later, while hosting a party at her home, someone broke a champagne glass on a table and proceeded to thrust the sharpened end through her nose. Parkin said that the conversation leading to this vicious assault “grew dark,” but she “didn’t want to ruin a good time.”
Parkin later said that there was a feeling of being powerless, and a period where she tried to drink herself to death. Luckily, things turned around for her when she met her husband, but still was afflicted with panic attacks. She was, as she put it, totally dependent on her husband for protection. She couldn’t go out at night, or venture out alone without feeling anxious. When she received the final payment of her restitution, Parkin decided to buy a firearm.
Helping Victims of Violent Crime Restore the Balance of Power"I didn’t feel so defenseless.” How learning to use a gun changed this victim of violent crime's life:
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Not only was she going to buy a firearm, but also she was going to be “proficient” at it. Parkin now says that training with her firearm has been a big part of her road to recovery. It was empowering, and she has felt less defenseless. As she noted at the end of the video, along with many other pro-Second Amendment supporters, a gun is the greatest equalizer against an attacker in a self-defense situation. Feminists need to understand that there are biological differences between men and women; men are stronger. This aversion to women exercising their Second Amendment rights because they have two x chromosomes isn’t only idiotic, but incredibly sexist. It’s a rather odious fairy tale from the political left, namely that a) guns are bad and b) women are too weak to use them. And here I thought this was the 21st century. Liberals need to keep women from becoming new gun owners (even though they’re the fastest growing demographic) because as soon as women become accustomed to shooting, they, like most, like it. As many have noted in the past, it’s almost political suicide to go against anything that’s popular with America’s middle class women. As a result, you have anti-gun liberals “mansplaining” that if women buy guns for protection, they’ll either increase the chances of having accidents in the home, or have those weapons be used against them.
So, they should just lie down and be brutalized? Pray for the best? Maybe since liberals like a good body count to further their talking points and policy goals of expanding background check laws (which would do nothing to curb gun violence), and eventually gutting the Second Amendment altogether. Their campaign has never been about safety, or victims’ rights, it’s always been about the expansion of government control over gun rights. Period. I would never have the stones to tell a woman what she should do regarding self-defense after a brutal rape and assault. Yet, President Obama surely didn’t seem to care when he lectured Kimberly Corban, another rape survivor, about how her having firearms in the home might increase the chance of them being used against her during CNN’s town hall event at George Mason University in January. Yeah, that’s a nice thing to say to a rape survivor, Barry.
Americans should be pushing to maximize our civil rights all the time, especially when it comes to firearms. You don’t just need to be a victim of violence in order to exercise your Second Amendment rights, though tragically some folks end up becoming gun owners because of some horrible event that’s happened to them. Ms. Parkin was brutalized by the worst elements of society; she decided to do something about it. And no one has the right to say that she’s wrong, though that’s not going to stop feminists from viewing her as nutty, channeling the anti-Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ethos that is sort of demented for a movement that stands by victims of rape. All of us should wish Ms. Parkin the best in her recovery, and hope her training continues to build proficiency in her weapon of choice.
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