Problem
Dozens of stalk victims are maimed and killed each year. Many die in agony and terror, some with the horror that a loved one has been killed or is next in line to die. It is now clear that anti-stalking laws and restraining orders have not stopped the rising toll and more needs to be done. The wealthy (including drug lords) can afford to hire armed guards to protect themselves and their property, while government ministers can appoint themselves armed guards at public expense when they feel threatened, protection unavailable to ordinary stalk victims, many of whom die because they were unable to call police when attacked or police arrived too late to help them.

In Australia it is illegal for ordinary people to own or use a firearm for security use, unless in the course of employment as a security guard or police officer. Guns owned for non-occupational purposes like target shooting, hunting or collecting must be locked up unloaded with the ammunition in a separate locked container, thus useless for defensive use, a requirement enforced by police who conduct surprise inspections. If police find a loaded pistol kept for defensive use in a locked safe next to a woman's bed she will be charged and her gun seized even if she is a disabled stalk victim. In SA she faces a maximum penalty of a $35,000 fine or 7 years prison, and if she carries it she faces an additional $50,000 fine or 10 years prison (Firearms Act 1977).

Causes
People naturally want the government to take care of their security, and have allowed their right to own weapons for this purpose to waste away in the mistaken belief that modern law-enforcement agencies would provide all the protection they needed, but, due to the reactive nature of policing, police often arrive too late to stop an attack or not at all if the victim is unable to call them. Thus the need for people to realize the limits of police protection. Some people say allowing ordinary people to own a gun for defensive use will endanger public safety, but the US experience reveals that the vast majority of people who undergo the training to obtain a licence to carry a pistol act responsibly, while states that introduce such licences are rewarded with a lower murder rate (More Guns, Less Crime, John Lott Jr.).

Government opposition to allowing victims to arm themselves has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with an authoritarian mindset and the desire to keep ordinary women weak and dependent on men (or the state) for their protection. This is why a female bodyguard can carry a pistol to protect an industrialist, but not to protect herself and her children from a violent stalker when off-duty. Conservative religious groups, which believe women should be under the control of men, are well organized and funded, whereas stalk victims are a small, disunited minority whose interests are neglected by most victim support groups, many of which are run by religious groups or pacifists, or by people more interested in maintaining financial support from the government than helping victims (thus avoid controversial issues).

Most victim support groups fail to provide stalk victims with information about gun defence for much the same reasons that some family planning clinics fail to provide women with information about abortion. Sadly, some women's groups are no better. Many are run by Marxists who believe in top down, government imposed solutions for women's problems, prisoners of their need to be 'looked after' (by the state, not men), yet paradoxically many oppose security guards for stalk victims as they think this disempowers women by making them "dependent". Victims have already been made dependent on the state for their protection, while our proposal for guards is intended as a stopgap until vulnerable victims (or a vulnerable carer) can obtain the training and equipment needed to protect themselves and their children from homicidal stalkers.

Solution
We want the South Australian government to pay private security guards to protect vulnerable stalk victims (female/elderly/disabled) until they or a vulnerable carer can obtain a practical defensive weapon after undergoing the relevant security training, namely obtaining a non-occupational security guard licence and a security validated firearms licence. As the Attorney-General has not expressed any support for our initiative we have decided we must launch a public campaign in support of victims, most of whom are ordinary women like our mothers, sisters and daughters, people who need our help and are deserving of our love and assistance, some of whom will suffer terrible injuries or die unless we can join together to help them.

We need a large number of people to attend our rallies to provide the social proof some people need to take the matter seriously (see our 'News' page for rally details), and contact their Member of Parliament to request action on this issue ('Links' page). Governments are naturally reluctant to introduce laws they believe will be opposed by powerful interest groups, thus the need for community support to show politicians that failing to act is untenable no matter what their personal views are on the matter. We were shocked by the government's disinterest in this matter, a view that can and must be changed as the current laws, which facilitate the rape, mutilation and murder of law-abiding women targeted by stalkers, are out of step with any reasonable conception of a just and compassionate society, thus un-Australian.