I’m always astounded by the courage of conservative women. It’s much more difficult for a female to be conservative than for a male. Women are made to feel ashamed if they want to get married, raise children, own a gun, or do anything that does not mesh with weird 60s feminism. Katie Pavlich is one woman who’s yet to be cowed.

In my darker moments, I enjoy watching spoiled children convulse and spasm when they hear an opinion different from their own. It was largely for this reason that I attended Katie Pavlich’s speech on March 10. Her proposition was not particularly dramatic. She simply believes that women who can defend themselves are less likely to be raped. Pavlich also believes that current campus restrictions on firearms put women in danger.

Upon entering the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, I expected to see a scene from the French Revolution. I was sure that the left-wing mob would have already swarmed the podium and bludgeoned Ms. Pavlich to death with their Apple products. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

The atmosphere was not quite that of Nazis in the Reichstag, but from where I sat I was able to observe a lot of rudeness. Apparently, Pavlich has the one opinion that’s not part of our beautiful mosaic of diversity. She was both jeered from the audience and harassed during the question section. I would love to see the hurricane of outrage that would tear apart our campus if a speaker of the opposite opinion had been treated like Ms. Pavlich was.

I rather enjoy the speakers whom the university invites. Last semester I attended a speech by General Wesley Clark, a peculiar man who I disagree with on many issues. I applauded when he entered, and listened politely through his entire speech even though I found his defense of the Vietnam War to be horribly revolting. When Clark finished I went to the microphone and asked a serious and polite question. Clark responded with a serious and polite answer.

I’m not claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth, I’m simply pointing out that disagreeing with someone is no reason to be rude.

The Q&A portion of Pavlich’s speech was a moronic inferno. I felt the IQ of the room drop 10 points after every successive question. The “questions” typically took the form of, “A person or child was raped. Guns didn’t stop that rape Fox News demon!”

A terribly distraught man stood up proclaiming to Ms. Pavlich that he had been mistreated on twitter by her followers. If the staff of the Iowa State Daily were as sensitive about social media abuse as he is, there would be no school paper.

When Pavlich asked one of her inquisitors if he thought it were appropriate for a woman to shoot a man raping her, his response was, “No.” Pavlich asked another brat what her solution to rape was, and the questioner replied, “Education.” Surely it is the lack of education that makes college students rape each other.

It didn’t seem like anyone listened to what Pavlich actually said. She did not say rape would disappear from the earth if we all carried guns. Nor did she say that everyone should carry a gun. Nor did she say that victims are responsible for rape. She merely said that women should take their safety into their own hands.

I’m a gun owning, open carry supporting, gun nut, and I agree with Pavlich on the central issue. However, I don’t think “campus carry” will make much of an impact on the number of rapes. I think Ms. Pavlich’s time might better be spent pursuing tougher sentences for rapists. Death penalty anyone? We used to hang rapists in this country.

The rudeness shown to Ms. Pavlich was also extremely sexist. I doubt a man would’ve been treated the same way. The women present behaved as if Katie Pavlich were some sort of traitor to her race.

I spoke to Ms. Pavlich after the speech and told her how fantastically brave she is. I also apologized for the rudeness of our students. I hope that this encounter doesn’t discourage more people on the right from speaking at our university.

I’ll end with what Edmund Burke would say in an age like this, “Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.”

The grasshoppers were indeed deafening on the night of March 10, while the great conservative cattle grazed on in silence.