Zach Calef seems to enjoy sparking the outrage of college students by promoting wrong assumptions and dangerous conclusions. He couldn’t rest after defending the brutal murder of an innocent young girl (Gwen); now he has to promote wrong ideas about rape and put women in more danger by advising they carry a weapon (“Women wield protective sidearms,” Oct. 31).

Mr. Calef, do your research like any proper journalist would. Instead of looking for a more neutral site, you headed towards NOW, who despite good intentions, is a radical women’s group. Try Feminist Majority Foundation or even the local SART or ACCESS for some information.

Secondly, you incorrectly assumed that a stranger in a dark alley does the majority of rapes. According to ACCESS of Ames (note the more neutral organization I got my information from), “70-75 percent of rape victims know their attacker.” How often does the dark-alley assault happen? Not very much. Instead rapes occur in the attacker or victim’s care or residence, usually by a boyfriend or close acquaintance who used “physical force, emotional bargaining (guilt trips), threats, or mind games to force sexual intercourse,” quoted once again from ACCESS.

With this in mind, is carrying a gun still the best idea? I’m against more gun control, but a woman with a gun isn’t necessarily safer. Both persons can use that weapon. What’s to keep him from reaching in and grabbing the gun, or wrestling it from her as she reaches for it herself? Then what can she do, with a gun pointed at her, as her attacker demands sex? Will you or the women of WAGC be there to save her? I highly doubt it.

Blair Polhamus

Freshman

Women’s Studies and Political Science