In a discussion about gun ownership and safety yesterday, Fox News The Five host Bob Beckel inadvertently revealed his ignorance about the prevalence of rape on college campuses and, seemingly, the existence of date rape.
“It’s the rapist who should be crapping [out of fear], not the victim,” Greg Gutfeld began, “and that means being armed.” Gutfeld was referring to a University of Colorado public safety department’s recommended rape defense tactics, which included defecating or urinating on their attacker. (Never mind that experts recommend doing it.) The poop jokes became a meme, with the help of rape joke hash tag “#LiberalTips2AvoidRape,” in the wake of Colorado State Rep. Joe Salazar’s clumsy attempt to explain why concealed carry is not a solution to sexual assault on college campuses. In a gun legislation hearing last week, Salazar said:
“It’s why we have call boxes. It’s why we have safe zones. That’s why we have the whistles, because you just don’t know who you’re going to be shooting at. And you don’t know if you feel like you’re going to be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop … pop a round at somebody.”
It’s safe to say Salazar meant that widespread gun ownership will lead to violent deaths before it will stop rapists. Harvard's School of Public Health agrees. But his remarks were met with a wave of derision from right wing blogs and tweeters. Some claimed Salazar claimed women don’t know whether they’re being raped; others said that Salazar is part of the conspiracy to “disarm” women. Still, none of the victim-blaming jokes matched the bizarro-world salon that was The Five’s own breakdown of the situation.
In the video above, pulled by Slate, Bob Beckel, the liberal of the bunch, almost arrived at Salazar’s point as he worried about what might happen if an entire fraternity came home drunk and packing heat. That is, until he did a 180 away from reality.
“When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?” Beckel asked, suddenly making the rest of the bunch look like a Take Back the Night organizing committee.
“It’s rampant,” said an obviously appalled Eric Bolling.
“Especially date rape,” added Dana Perino.
“Are you gonna take a gun out and shoot your date?” Beckel wondered. But before a lesson on the tricky duality of “date rapists” could be taught, Gutfeld was urging the group to move on from the rape topic. Can’t say we blame him.
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love and war
,fox news
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,rape caucus
,bob beckel
,the five