She still wasn't convinced of needing them for self defense though. Like many people, she thought she knew more than she really did (we all get guilty of this one). She had gone to a couple of self defense kind of workshop things before. So she bought into the only thing that matters is skill. Which it matters greatly, but so do size, aggressiveness, physical conditioning, speed, experience, and desire to win. It all goes in there. So I told her if she thought she could out fight a burglar why don't we have a little wrastlin' match. Needless to say it didn't go nearly as well as she had imagined it would. No bruises, nothing hurt, but I asked her, "Okay now what if I had hauled off and punched you in the face? How well could you have fought through that? When I had you down, if I had broken your arm? Now what if I had a club or a knife? Worse yet what if I had a gun and you never even got close enough to fight? I am one man, not in the best of shape, and very little training; I managed to gain control of you while taking care to not hurt you. You think a robber or rapist is going to care if you get hurt? Are you really willing to take that risk? Are you willing to risk your children on that?"
I didn't get her to be conservative, I didn't get her into being an armed citizen. I did get her to change her mind on being anti-gun though. I never did get her into being self-reliant which I thought was a much easier sell. "Why don't you have jumper cables?" "Someone around will have a pair." ... "Where is your first aid kit at?" "We don't have one, I have some bandaids. If anyone gets hurt too bad we'll just go to the emergency room."
