Guns, like abortion, are a matter of choice

USA Today ^ | 5 May 2004 | Mary Zeiss Stange

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Two Sundays ago, hundreds of thousands of women converged on Washington, D.C., in what was billed as a March for Women's Lives. As a demonstration for reproductive rights, the event was about much more than abortion. The marchers' placards evoked a broad range of issues relating to women's health and security. Yet one issue curiously absent from the day's agenda was the pervasive violence against women and girls. That theme will figure prominently in the next big demonstration, scheduled for Sunday, when the Million Mom March organization will gather on the west lawn of the Capitol for the "Mother's Day March to Halt the Assault."

The marchers plan to pressure Congress to extend the federal ban on assault weapons, which is set to expire in September. For many people — including the liberal-minded politicians and celebrities on whom organizers count to attract publicity — the two marches, one pro-abortion rights and the other anti-gun, will be on a seamless ideological continuum.

But they shouldn't be.

The option of arming oneself for protection is a matter of personal choice in many of the same ways, and for the same reasons, as the option of ending a pregnancy.

Mary Zeiss Stange teaches Women's Studies and Religion at Skidmore College. She is co-author of Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

[Reelect President Dubya]

Logic?

Liberals don't need no steenking logic!

[Puppage]

The option of arming oneself for protection is a matter of personal choice in many of the same ways, and for the same reasons, as the option of ending a pregnancy.

The right to bear arms is a Constitutional Right.....killing an unborn child is NOT.

[joesnuffy]

guns are like abortion....oh yeah a great leap of logic....

I guess if a mother feels that her children are a great threat to her social life...she should kill them for getting in the way

Much like she should be able to do if anyone else gets in the way of her social life...and do it with a gun..

Babies...the liberal equivilant of rapists murderers muggers and armed robbers.....

These people really are nuts...

[Atlas Sneezed]

Bang

[basil]

Although, of course, it wasn't mentioned here, don't forget that the Second Amendment Sisters will also be holding a rally in DC this Sunday. Be there if you can, please!

[rarestia]

Wow... USA Today stands up for gun rights... and abortion? Umm...

[anonymous_user]

Kill animals, kill babies. It's all good.

[ArrogantBustard]

The option of arming oneself for protection is a matter of personal choice in many of the same ways, and for the same reasons, as the option of ending a pregnancy.

Ridiculous! Every abortion is the direct, intentional killing of an innocent person. It is in no way comparable to owning a gun.

[Randover]

"...the pervasive violence against women and girls"

Males are much more likely to be the victims of violence in the U. S. than are females.

Doesn't anyone care about facts anymore?

[FreedomFlynnie]

Good article, especially from a professor of "Women's Studies"! While I think the abortion issue is best left to the several States, it's refreshing to hear someone in academia argue from the position of Constitutional rights to increase freedom rather than feel-good propaganda that increases government control.

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

Males are much more likely to be the victims of violence in the U. S. than are females.

Are you sure about that statistic? I have heard that one in four females will be a victim of sexual crime but that would not be grouped in with violent crime.

[monday]

"Males are much more likely to be the victims of violence in the U. S. than are females.

Doesn't anyone care about facts anymore?"

So what? You think only males should be able to protect themselves with a gun?

[monday]

Most of the people who read your post would gladly give up the right to own a gun if they could also make abortion illegal. "All power to the government." is their motto. Personal responsibility and personal freedom are their enemy.

I liked the article though.

[Indie]

Hey Mary. Learn your history. Then take geometry so you know what logic is. Killing an unborn child is not a constitutional right and is, in fact, murder, no matter what semantics you want to use.
Don't push me you liberal nazi *itch.