"There is no equality as long as men victimize the weaker sex and women are defenseless."

my quote would be very similar....

"There is no equality as long as the strong victimize the weak"

Furthermore, if the goal is merely a level playing field, total disarmament accomplishes the exact same thing.

In your scenario, the problem is solved with the killing of the rapist.

....very old testament....

i would argue that my scenario is the more human one...

...very new testament...

....and the only one of the two that leaves the door open for the over-arching problem to be solved, which is male on female violence (ultimately, human on human violence but for the sake of this conversation we'll keep it compartmentalized).

Carrying a gun in your purse no more reduces your risk of being raped than does carrying a gun in your vest to prevent being attacked by a cougar. When a cougar attacks you, you've been stalked. The numbers say that if you were to be raped it would overwhelmingly most likely be by someone you know....someone who knows your habits, probably knows you own a gun, knows where you are carrying it, knowws where you are vulnerable (away from your purse for example??), knows your husbands duty schedule etc, etc, etc....you would then also have been stalked by a predator.

The appropriate response to fear is vigilance, not violence.

I would argue that vigilance is the human response. An escalation of violence is the more animalistic response.