Regarding Barb Pacholik's editorial wherein she quotes counselor Deb Farden, "The bottom line is, as a society, we have to say it (spousal violence) is not acceptable to us and communicate that message over and over again."

Horse manure! Simply saying, "This must stop", will never make it stop. Donna Clements' story, while gripping in its tragedy, is simply the story of abject helplessness in the face of violent danger, a helplessness aided and abetted by victims' groups and liberal politicians in their eternal quest for a peaceful utopia through total civilian disarmament. Unfortunately this story is repeated again and again in Canada each year.

Contrary to current doctrine, and unlike today's policies of helplessness, training and equipping potential victims for effective self defense actually will prevent a lot of violence. This has been shown true in every jurisdiction where it has been tried, and without any "Wild West" scenarios the criminal coddlers love to try to scare us with.

What I am about to say next will be offensive to some. Too bad, because it is the unvarnished truth and it needs to be said.

The cops were there pretty fast, if you ask me. No one could realistically demand or expect better police service. And yet it still wasn't fast enough to save Donna Clements. When her ex was trying to kill her, only she was in a position to stop him. By abdicating her most sacred right and duty of self defense and placing this impossible burden on the police, Ms. Clements as much as pulled the trigger on herself.

This woman should have FIRST protected herself using whatever level of force she needed, and ONLY once it was safe to do so THEN called 911. To do this effectively she needed to be armed, plain and simple. I have no idea why the victims and womens groups of this country have not made personal self defense their banner issue. Until they do, the bodies of the victims will continue to pile up at the feet of those who wish to ensure that in Canada only the criminals and the police have guns.

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