Every day, I walk to class at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Every night, gunshots echo through the streets of this city near where I live and go to school.
Just last weekend, there were five reports of gunfire in the Como neighborhood, blocks from campus. Since the outset of this year, there have been dozens of reports and several people gunned down.
Naturally, women like myself are deeply concerned about maintaining our safety in such a dangerous city. Even though we voted to NOT abolish the police, we still have a long way to go before restoring public safety, which means it falls upon us all to take steps to protect ourselves.
For me, I choose gun ownership.
My professors and classmates disagree with this decision. Apparently they’d rather have me, a woman, at the mercy of criminal men armed with only a can of ineffective pepper spray to defend myself.
I guess they don’t know that there are significantly more defensive gun uses in America every year than offensive ones. One review based on CDC data found that there are 300,000 crimes involving firearms every year — a number that is dwarfed by the at least 500,000 and at most 3 million instances of would-be victims protecting themselves with their legally-owned guns.
Meanwhile, other scientific studies have shown that prohibitions on concealed carry are actually correlated with an increased amount of crime across several major cities.
Now that’s all fine and dandy, sure. Women should be allowed to protect themselves with handguns, but surely I don’t support those deadly AR-15s, right?
Well actually, I do, and my position is based on historical fact and data.
People tend to forget that America already tried an assault weapons ban under George H.W. Bush and it failed. Miserably.
Bush’s ban is nearly identical to the types of bans the modern left is calling for. It lasted 10 years, and data scientists have concluded that it “did not significantly affect murder rates.”
I understand if my fellow young women are scared of living in Minneapolis — but they shouldn’t be afraid of legal gun owners, like me.
Instead, they should take a moment, think about their situation rationally and consider taking their self-defense into their own hands in the most efficient way possible — by buying a gun.
Susan Esbe
Susan Esbe is a video columnist for Alpha News. She is currently a senior at the University of Minnesota studying political science and German. She has been involved with various political campaigns in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, where she went to high school. Susan is currently working for Turning Point USA and started a new chapter from scratch. Susan hopes to stay active in politics throughout and after her military career as the voice of the (new and complex) young conservative movement.
