So a Portland gun group is offering free gun training classes to abused women, but so-called public health experts think armed self-defense is short-sighted.

“Like it or not, a firearm is the great equalizer,” said the founder of the gun group. “A 90-pound woman can defend herself against a 300-pound (man).” But:

“From a public health perspective, that’s certainly not the message I would want to send,” said Nancy Glass, a professor in the School of Nursing at Oregon Health & Science University who has researched intimate partner homicide. “In my view, arming people is a very short-sighted response to a public health crisis.”

If my abusive ex-husband or ex-boyfriend has threatened to kill me and the only protection I have is a judge’s restraining order, somehow, I don’t think a long-term response to the public health crisis is not going to help me sleep at night. Anyway, this is not a “public health crisis,” it’s a crime problem. To blithely say that teaching women how to defend themselves is not useful is a remarkably obtuse attitude to the situation. There may be deep societal reasons for intimate partner homicide, but in the meantime, women want — and have a right — to defend themselves. And for many women, the best way to do that is to learn how to use firearms.