In wake of actress' murder, CNN offers mugger safety tips

In response to the shooting of off-broadway acctress Nicole duFresne by Manhattan mugger last week, CNN.com has published tips on "How to survive a mugging".

The story is based on a press release by the Washington-based National Crime Prevention Council, which is now circulating a list of tips on how to survive a mugging.

"It demonstrates that confronting an attacker is probably the worst thing you can do," council spokesman Todd Post is quoted as saying.

When it comes to the statisics of self-defense and surviving a violent attack, Todd and CNN have got it all wrong.

Consider this evidence:

"Murder rates decline when either more women or more men carry concealed handguns, but the effect is especially pronounced for women. An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about three to four times more than an additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men." More Guns, Less Crime. John R. Lott, Jr.

Raw data from the Justice Department’s annual National Crime Victim Survey show that when a woman resists a “stranger rape” with a gun, the probability of completion was 0.1% and of victim injury 0.1%, compared to 31% and 40% respectively, for all stranger rapes. For all rapes, women who resisted with a gun were 2.5 times more likely to escape without injury than those who did not resist, and 4 times more likely to escape uninjured than those who resisted with any means other than a gun.” (Southwick, Journal of Criminal Justice, 2000)

A Dept. of Justice survey found that 40% of felons chose not to commit at least some crimes for fear their victims were armed, and 34% admitted having been scared off or shot at by armed victims. (James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous, Aldine de Gruyter, 1986)

Of course, because she is a law-abiding citizen, duFresne's 19-year-old attacker didn't have to fear that she was armed on the streets of the gun-control-friendly city of New York.

As a way of illustrating absurdity, OFCC's Ken Hanson has prepared some other tips for surviving victim disarmament zones, which can be viewed by clicking the "Read More..." link below.

Tips for surviving victim disarmament zones
(based on commonly-offered advice from gun ban extremists about what to do when attacked by a violent predator)

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1.) Have no personal possessions, and for God's sake don't carry money
or credit cards.

2.) Whenever possible, stay locked at home, and never venture out. When at home, have a can of hairspray, a whistle, and be ready to dial 911.

3.) Appeasement has worked so well for Europe over the last 500 years,
try preemptively giving them what they want before you are attacked.

4.) During the attack, try and figure out what you have done wrong to
deserve the attack, and try and avoid similar behavior in the future.
Consider the first attack a polite reminder to help out the city's less
fortunate.

5.) If the punk starts shooting, try and get away from the bullets.

6.) A few community pride projects, like a playground cleanup, will probably do more to protect you than any self-defense measure.

7.) Suggest to the criminal that he participate in a gun buy-back
program as a more legitimate source of revenue in the future.

8.) Since these encounters are about control and ego, show that you are terrified and will submit meekly to the punk's every whim. If possible, try to urinate in your pants. Predators respect fear and weakness.