Emma, in Colorado carrying a bat under your car seat can be construed (the cops here are a*m*a*z*i*n*g) as carrying a concealed weapon. You can carry a concealed gun if you have a permit, but you can’t have a lead pipe or baseball bat under your front seat.

Thankfully our police aren’t all that bad. I’m sure she’s been stopped by the police and the subject hasn’t come up. I think as long as she isn’t brandishing it they’d be okay with it.

I think as women sometimes we have to bend the law to protect ourselves.

Kristen, you wouldn’t be legally able to shoot the rapist–you can only shoot if someone’s life is actually in danger. I had a buddy with a concealed carry permit and asked him about this exact scenario once; he told me it always comes up in the classes you have to take for the permit, and unfortunately, if the rapist isn’t actually trying to kill anyone you’d be busted if you shot him.

You know something sad? This applies to someone breaking into your home too. Or at least it does in California. Le sigh.

It’s interesting to note that most of you guys would try to help, because it seems that more and more of us prefer to mind our own business, when confronted with this type of scenario.

The other week, a young teen was gang-raped, and apparently there had been people who’d witnessed the attack happening and did nothing. I can’t quite get my head round that.

In that situation…yeah no, I wouldn’t do anything but run and try to find a phone to call the police once I felt I was a safe enough distance away and was sure they hadn’t seen us. If there’s a gang of them, two more girls would just mean more rape victims and my and my friend’s safety comes first.

I would definitely call the police once we were safe, though. And I’d likely be wracked with guilt for the rest of my life, but in the end it’d have done the victim no good to give the gang of guys another two victims.

Crazies are a bit afraid of other crazies. Learned that growing up on the streets of a big city. Plus, the perp has to calculate how to take out three people rather than just the one.

And also, shouting something like “fire” or what not draws more do-gooders than “help”. Sadly, people are more willing to come out to protect their personal property rather than another life. Sigh

wouldn’t have either- not directly. Becoming another victim of the gang wouldn’t have helped her.

When I say they did nothing, I mean that literally. They didn’t even call 999. They just opted to mind their own business.

The other week, a young teen was gang-raped, and apparently there had been people who’d witnessed the attack happening and did nothing. I can’t quite get my head round that.

I wouldn’t have either- not directly. Becoming another victim of the gang wouldn’t have helped her. Even if I was with a friend and we both had cell phones, I would get the hell away before I even took a chance on stopping and calling police. More than one attacker means too much danger, even if we were both armed. Hell, even if my friend was a big guy, I wouldn’t let him chance taking on a pack of rabid animals.

It describes certain personality types and why people do what they do in scenarios – everything from a hostage situation to the 9/11 to the stranger risking his own life to rescue a person. Highly recommend it.

P.S. I’d wade in to help. Car keys applied to the eyes, perfume or hair spray sprayed in eyes, a swift kick to the side of the attacker’s knee/the groin. Take off your lovely spike heeled shoe and apply to attacker’s face. Female, male, small built, etc, you are not defenseless.

In this case I’d send my friend to find a phone and I’d start shouting to the girl, telling th eguy the police have been called, basically being as loud and obnoxious and distracting as I could without going into the alley and getting myself in harm’s way. I’m not a fighter, I don’t think I’d do any good physically, so I’d stay out of the alley if at all possible.

But if my plan didn’t work and the guy kept going for it, I’d grab the nearest weapon-like thing (alley’s are good for those) and do what I could to stop him. Even if it meant I got hurt too, I couldn’t stand there and just watch without doing something.