Use of "Scare Tactics" to Introduce Firearms

[Pami]

In the Dating & Guns thread ( clicky: http://ingunowners.com/forums/women_...rspective.html ), a poster suggested that he used "scare tactics" to help introduce the idea of guns in the house to his newly installed live-in girlfriend. (While you will shortly see I don't agree with this idea, in his defense, it was not his only idea, just one of them.)

In that post, "scare tactics" was referring to bringing up current news stories that involve women having to defend themselves from violent attackers. This is the "mild" version of scare tactics and is brought up with amazing frequency.

This thread ( clicky: Women & Guns :: View topic - Why do they? ) was brought to my attention as well. It was started by pax, who also reads and occasionally posts on INGO, and who also has done an amazing job with her own very successful, instructional site Cornered Cat. That thread discusses a more extreme version of "scare tactics" that surprisingly is suggested more often than one would think.

The intention of these "tactics" is prove the point that women need to be able to defend themselves because Bad Guys exist and do intend to harm them.

My question is this: is the use of any kind of "scare tactics" acceptable, and if so, to what level? Why or why not?

My opinion:

1. Discussing current events as they happen to be on the news make a great conversation starter. However, I don't believe they should be used so extensively that they scare the woman into making her paranoid about her personal safety. It is a good way to introduce that she should build her situational awareness skills. It is a good way to get her thinking about how she would defend herself if she were ever in that particular situation. Hearing about it on TV or the radio and then discussing it is good. Reading a newspaper or a website while she is in the room and mentioning it to her to start the discussion is good. Going out and finding these articles and stories to nag her constantly about them is NOT good. The key point here is moderation. She needs to come around to the decision that she needs to be prepared to defend herself in a manner she decides is acceptable to her. She cannot be forced into deciding that firearms are the end-all-be-all answer to whatever situation she may have to face in her lifetime.

2. In regards to the thread on the Women & Guns forum mentioned earlier, using extreme types of scare tactics such as setting up a "safe violent encounter" (is that an oxymoron or what?) are COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. There are so many things that could go wrong with that situation (on the mild side: end the relationship; on the opposite end of the spectrum: one of the "attackers" dead by a Good Samaritan coming to her rescue) that it's just a dumb, dumb, dumb, DUMB idea.

Please discuss.