Women Told: "Best Weapon Is Your Voice..."

"The murder of Meredith Emerson has a lot of women looking for ways to defend themselves against possible attackers.

More than 1,000 women showed up Monday night for a seminar on self-defense in Duluth.

Monday night's seminar was the third held, and the crowds continue to swell. While attendees learned that Emerson's case was very rare, other attacks in everyday places are not so rare.

In the audience, mostly women, but also some husbands, and children -- upwards of 1,000 people there because of the tragedy that happened to Meredith Emerson, kidnapped from a well-traveled trail in the Georgia mountains, and later found dead.

"I wanted to come and learn a bit about safety, and what I need to do to protect myself, to become more aware of my surroundings," said attendee Gina Brothers.

Don Loudermilk came with his wife and daughter.

"They're both so very important to me, and I want them to have the basics of what to do, and I feel like one of the most important things is situational awareness," said Loudermilk.

The statistics speak for themselves: a woman is raped every two to four minutes. In most cases, the attackers are someone the victims know. And most crimes occur within five miles of a victim's home.

The self-defense instructors from Atlanta Budokan showed off what to do if you are grabbed -- if you can, fight, kick, and use what they said is your best weapon -- your voice. But the bigger message -- awareness. Avoiding situations where you can become a victim. That's advice that cannot stop every single attack, but can certainly better the odds against being attacked.

A lot of ground was covered in the seminar. One thing they said, is that if something doesn't feel right, follow your gut. Intuition is usually the best way to go."

That sound you're hearing is my head whipping around my shoulders as if a try out for Exorcist-6 was just declared.

The BEST weapon a woman can have is the MOST weapon she can handle. This of course means a suitable firearm. Awareness is all well and good but guess what? Some people have to live WHERE they have to live, and work where they have to work, and shop where they have to shop, and drive where they HAVE to drive. Since politicians and a ever emasculated police force KNOWINGLY permit high crime areas to thrive, some of our citizens cannot HELP being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Over and over and over again.

More than a thousand women attend a "self-defense" symposium and the best information they can be given is to SCREAM?

And yes, we're back to the sad case of Meredith Emerson. A woman who was well-trained in the art of self defense and manhandled like a kitten before being brutally murdered. She was out hiking. Unarmed. Being where she had every right to be and doing something she'd done many times before. But alone on a trail where the only person she could look to for help was in fact herself. And since the law in Georgia didn't permit her to do much of anything but die like a dog, she came to a horrible end.

Instead of standing up like men, the "authorities" held a hug-fest in place of immediately changing a stupid and dangerous law.

Maybe this is out of line because I wasn't there, but I'd hazard a good guess that SHE screamed. Possibly even as he was cutting off her head.