Illinois State Police promote rapists' safety

Photo courtesy of Oleg Volk

My friends at Illinois Carry have found something on the Illinois State Police website that has to be seen to be believed. I had already known that this is a state in which defenselessness is the law, so perhaps I should have expected this insanity--but sticking a finger down your throat to cause yourself to vomit, in order to discourage a rapist? Can they be serious?

Fighting for your safety may be necessary. However, if you start out fighting you cancel any other options that might be open to you. Since many attacks on women are not sexually motivated, and are designed to degrade and humiliate, talking your way out of it may be easier.

* There is documentation of assailants that left a would-be-victim alone after she told him that she was pregnant and it would kill her baby. (Some case were women that were too old to even have a baby.)
* Telling an attacker that you have VD or AIDS can discourage him.
* It may sound disgusting, but putting your fingers into you throat and making yourself vomit usually gets results. (This method is not often used except as a last resort.)
* Use your imagination and you can think of others.

The above methods are particularly important if your assailant has a gun or knife, or there is more than one attacker. (Fighting would probably be futile.)

If you must fight

Use of a firearm to protect yourself or property is not recommended.

* Guns stolen from residences are a primary way of getting guns into the hands of criminals.
* Half of all the women that fire a gun trying to protect themselves shoot someone they do not want to, i.e. friend, neighbors, relatives, etc.

I'd love to see the source of that last statistic.

OK--so the ISP says firearms are out (and we're not permitted to carry them--you know, like free people--here in Illinois, anyway). So what weapons are recommended?

Articles common to your handbag that make useful defense weapons.

* nail file
* rat tail comb
* teasing brush
* pens and pencils
* keys
* anything rigid

For dealing with particularly nasty individuals, it would probably be best to carry an assault teasing brush.

It's the very last sentence that truly sums up the Illinois attitude when it comes to self-defense:

Remember that screaming may be just as important to your defense as any weapon.

Screaming as a weapon, eh? Well, the civilian disarmament advocates certainly have enough practice at that--I'll call it the Sugarmann defense.

UPDATE: The ISP has apparently noticed the uproar over their ridiculous "advice" (I'm realistic enough to know that they don't care what I say, but David Hardy has to be taken more seriously (which is as it should be). The ISP website hasn't been changed nearly enough, but it now omits the "Use of a firearm to protect yourself or your property is not recommended," and the "statistic" claiming that "Half of all the women that fire a gun trying to protect themselves shoot someone they do not want to, i.e. friend, neighbors, relatives, etc." In case anyone thinks I made those parts up, click on the following image of what the site did say.