Anti-gun zealots love to present domestic violence as all the reason they should need to enact further gun restrictions. After all, some people are dangerous and those people tend to engage in violence early and often. Sutherland Springs is a prime example. That killer had a history of domestic violence, after all.

But there’s a flip side that the gun grabbers miss. They forget that women use guns to defend themselves, kind of like this one:

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is searching for a man accused of attacking his ex-wife as he tried to break into her home.

The victim told police she shot Randolph Bishop in the face before he ran away.

Police said Bishop tried to break into the victim’s home with a crowbar.

According to a police report, Bishop said he wanted to talk, and when the woman agreed, he attacked her.

The Sheriff’s Office said the woman had a gun and fired at Bishop, hitting him in somewhere in the face.

Action News Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson said she had every right to protect herself.

“She was in fear and her fears came to life when he assaulted her outside. She did the next best thing and protected herself and is well within her rights to protect herself,” Jefferson said.

Yes, she did have that right. Luckily, she had the means to do so.

What many who pretend that domestic violence is a reason for gun control miss is that absent guns, men are even better able to abuse women. They are, on average, bigger, faster and stronger than the women they’re assaulting. They have the capability to beat them to death with their bare hands and the woman would be powerless to do anything about it.

But you put a gun in her hands, and…well, we get a jackwagon getting shot in the face by the ex-wife he allegedly attacked.

There’s an old saying. “God created all men. Sam Colt made them equal.”

That saying was a truth, noting that prior to the gun, the biggest and strongest men almost always had some degree of superiority over their fellow men. Strength came in many forms, mind you, but the average guy didn’t have a lot of options in his life to defend himself. Things weren’t equal by any stretch of the imagination.

But once the gun came on the scene, particularly the repeating handgun, suddenly things changed. The small no longer had to fear large men with malice in their hearts. They could hold their own.

This applied to women as well. No longer did they have to fear men in the dark alley, knowing they couldn’t overpower an attacker. Now they knew they could end the fight quite well if needed.

That’s what a firearm does. It negates any and all advantages of the bigger, stronger brute who wants to violate your personal rights. Shooting someone in the face tends to make them rethink their desire to cause you harm right then as well.

If you want to end domestic violence as a threat, then arm more women. Arm enough of them, and you’ll be hardpressed to think of the term as “violence against women” as anything more than a really bad idea some people used to have.