Miss USA causes stir with answer about self defense

     This past weekend Nia Sanchez from Nevada was crowned Miss USA. I probably never would have known or paid much attention to this if not for the fact that she is a fourth degree black belt in Taekwon do. This is really because fourth degree black belts are not just given out, this takes quite a bit of work and dedication. Still this would have been a small blip on my radar had it not been for some of the reaction to her answer to a question that I found while doing research on a self defense issue. The question had to do with the issue of rape on college campuses. Here is her answer:

 “I believe that some colleges may potentially be afraid of having a bad reputation and that would be a reason it could be swept under the rug, because they don’t want that to come out into the public,”Nia Sanchez said. “But I think more awareness is very important so women can learn how to protect themselves. Myself, as a fourth-degree black belt, I learned from a young age that you need to be confident and be able to defend yourself. And I think that’s something that we should start to really implement for a lot of women.”

      Apparently the in studio crowd agreed with this as they erupted in applause. Some people on social media, on the other hand, were appalled by the answer. Here are some of the tweets:

 I get that the college sexual assault problem can't be solved in 30 secs but still icky to pretend like self defense is the answer. #MissUSA

 Women shouldn't need to learn to protect themselves against rape #missnevada educate and respect yourself as a woman #rapeculture

      Rape, any kind of assault really, is a terrible thing that can happen. It needs to be stopped in any way possible. So to read these tweets, it sounds like these women believe that self defense is not a necessary step in the solution. I believe that this is a very dangerous stance to take. I agree that education to prevent this from happening in the first place is very important and needs to be addressed very thoroughly, but it will be a long time before this disappears from society. Educational programs have been very successful in helping prevent issues such as driving while intoxicated and bullying. This issue could be the same. The problem is that while these issues have improved, they still happen, albeit in smaller numbers. So even if we are able to cut the number of attacks significantly, there will still be some predators out there. To me, one victim is too many. Therefore until assaults are eradicated completely, everyone needs to learn to avoid dangerous situations, be aware, and defend themselves in order to escape. It is not "icky" to be prepared.

Self Defense Statistics Austin, TX

Violent crime happens every day in every city in the world. Predators roam freely everywhere. Are they around every corner? Let's look at the actual numbers of attacks. Awareness is our best defense against attacks. Here are the most recent (2012) statistics posted from the Austin Police Department on violent crimes in the city. The estimated population of Austin in 2012 was 842,592.

Crime                       Number           Percentage

Murder                                    34                       .004%
Rape                                      219                      .026%
Robbery                              1,040                      .123%
Aggravated Assault              1,980                     .235%


What can we draw from these numbers? The main thing that I see from this is that violent crime actually happens to a very small percentage of people. Four people out of every 100,000 became a victim of murder in 2012. Twenty-six people out of every 100,000 were the victims of rape. As numbers go, this is actually not very many. The problem is that these are not just numbers, these are people and one victim is too many.
How many of these could have been prevented? This is a question that we will never be able to answer and unfortunately for these people, it is too late. Their lives have already been changed. What we can do is train ourselves to be aware of situations, be physically ready to remove ourselves from these situations, and mentally prepared to respond. Real ongoing self defense training is vital to every person out there. While the stats show that predators are not hiding behind every corner, they are behind some. Please make choices now to be prepared for these potential situations so that you do not become a number on this list.