There are a lot of stupid arguments against gun ownership out there some even dumber alternatives offered up. One of my favorite “alternatives” that makes me roll my eyes so hard I can see the back of my throat is when someone asks, “Why not just learn martial arts?”

See, while martial arts can be beneficial, they’re not able to do everything. What you see on YouTube–people snatching guns out of the hands of others–is easy to do with a cooperative partner and not so easy to do in real life.

And you don’t see little old ladies beating the crap out of guys in their prime because they took a few Krav Maga classes.

Instead, you see what really happens, and it can be ugly.

Police in New Orleans said they have arrested four teenagers suspected of carjacking a 73-year-old woman and dragging her to death.

Authorities said the incident happened Monday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. in the 300 block of North Scott Street.

Officers said when they arrived, they located the victim, Linda Frickey, on the ground unresponsive “suffering from her arm being dismembered from her body.” Frickey was pronounced dead on the scene.

At a news conference Tuesday, Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said Frickey became entangled in her seatbelt during the carjacking, which led to her being dragged from the vehicle. Ferguson said her arm was eventually severed from the body.

…

“What occurred to 73-year-old Linda Frickey was heinous and unthinkable,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement to FOX Television Stations.  “I can’t help, but think of my own mother and other elders in our community. While we will allow the NOPD to complete a thorough investigation, any and all persons that the evidence shows participated in the murder of this elder will be prosecuted to the absolute fullest extent of the law.”

Does anyone think a 73-year-old woman could have defended herself with karate or BJJ in this instance? Probably not, despite what some anti-Second Amendment types like to believe.

But if she had been armed, then maybe she’d still be alive.

Now, understand, there’s no indication she was unarmed by government force. This is Louisiana, which isn’t exactly an anti-gun state. It looks like Fricky opted not to carry a gun, which is also her right.

I’m just saying that if she had, we’d be talking about a completely different story.

She wouldn’t have been dragged down the street in such a way that her arm was literally torn from the rest of her body. It’s far more likely she’d have been explaining to the police one or more of these punks obtained the extra holes in their bodies.

Can anyone tell me with a straight face that such a thing wouldn’t be the preferable outcome?

If so, you’d best do it from far, far away, because you really wouldn’t like my response to such blatant stupidity.

Personally, I think everyone who can lawfully carry a firearm should do so, but particularly the most vulnerable in our population such as the elderly and women–the people most likely to be targeted by vicious punks like this.

I’d really have been writing about how Frickey gunned down some carjackers than about how she was killed instead.