AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane

Help50 is an organization that wants to arm at least 50 women in Illinois. Admittedly, this is not the most friendly environment to do so, but the organization’s trying.

Since the typical Bearing Arms reader believes that more guns equal less crime, I’ve written about this group a time or two. Further, these are single women living in low-income neighborhoods. That sounds like a recipe for disaster if one is unarmed, so helping these women out seems like the right thing to do.

However, the group is struggling to meet its modest goals. It’s bad enough that it’s starting a fundraising effort with a kick of its own.

In an email, founder Robert Bertrand laid down a challenge that he hopes won’t be met. “If you can’t stand the heat, something something something. If I raise $2,000 between today and July 4th, I will be eating a Carolina Reaper Pepper,” Bertrand said in the email.

He continued:

• The Carolina Reaper scorches the Scoville scale at 2.2 million units—that’s 220 times hotter than a jalapeño!
• If I break my $2000 fundraising goal I will eat one live on-camera on the Armed Citizen Project Facebook page for your enjoyment. Two full minutes of hot pepper torture and you can feel good about it!
• Just donate to see it happen.

I’m absolutely desperate to get shotguns into the hands of law-abiding women. So desperate that I’m actually pulling a stunt like this! Follow us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/TheArmedCitizenProject/ to watch!

Some folks will do anything to raise a buck, right?

For the record, Bertrand confessed to me that he’s not a big fan of stuff that hot, which means that him eating one of these puppies will be amusing if nothing else.

Plus, as he notes, you can feel good about inflicting the torture on the guy as it’s all ultimately for a great cause.

And make no mistake, folks. This is a great cause.

I’ve spent a bit of time recently blasting some anti-gun proposals because they will have a disproportionate impact on the poor. This matters because the poor are far more likely to be exposed to violence in their lifetimes. For poor women, the risks are even worse. Not only are they a potential target for robberies, but they’re also a target for rape. Further, they may well be targeted because they’re women.

If we’re going to say that guns save lives, then let’s prove we believe that. Let’s rally behind a cause that seeks to put guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens who desperately need to have the means to defend their lives.

These firearms aren’t being just handed out. They’re going through the legal means to help these women get them, so you don’t have to worry about bad people getting guns this way.

All you have to do is donate.

And, if Bertrand has to eat a pepper that will liquify his intestines for our amusement in the process, who am I to say no?