An Indiana lawmaker thinks that women should carry guns to protect themselves from being raped, ABC News reports.
In response to an article from the Indiana Star Tribune last week in which a woman recounted her sexual assault from 1994, Representative Jim Lucas posted a letter to Facebook telling the reporter that he should write a follow-up article to address that “thousands of Hoosier women that are taking steps and learning how not to be a victim” and “empower themselves to mitigate their chances of being violently assaulted."
Lucas immediately faced a storm of criticism for his comments, with many arguing that Lucas was victim blaming and not actually solving the problem of rape, but rather pushing a pro-guns agenda. After all, wouldn't it be better to just teach men not to rape women in the first place?
He defended himself, telling the Indiana Star Tribune, “That’s always been a concern and an issue of mine is women being able to defend themselves. I personally have paid out of my pocket for dozens of women to take firearms classes.”
But Lucas apologized on Saturday, explaining that he's realized words can sometimes be loaded. “Probably the biggest understanding that I gained is, what average everyday people take for accepted language and terminology is really very sensitive to people who have experienced trauma like that. They are extremely sensitive to the word victim,” Lucas told the Associated Press.
This is not the first time that Lucas has faced criticism for his derogatory statements towards women on social media. ABC News points out that he's come under fire twice for posting inappropriate, sexist images—both about violence against women. After posting a photo of a woman in a car trunk with the caption, "Wanna know who loves you more: your wife or your dog? Lock them both in your trunk and see who's happy to see you when you let them out," Lucas met with domestic violence advocates.
But even in light of these previous incidents, Lucas said that he was shocked by the “level of hatred” directed at him, and that he felt that the words from his letter had been “twisted,” HuffPost reports.
Maybe Lucas need to realize that after posting multiple awful memes about how women need to be put in their place, a lot of people aren't going to give him the benefit of the doubt anymore.
Lucas has said that, in the future, he will try to be “more sensitive when trying to use the word [victim] and maybe explain myself more,” ABC News reports. Yeah, that's just about the least he can do.