I admit that of all the problems AP and I did point out in Joe Biden’s spectacularly ignorant advice on home defense, this is one point we both missed.  Isn’t just a bit patronizing to have a man tell a little lady how she should defend herself while treating her concern over self-defense as something of a joke?  Kate Ernest, the little lady who posed the question of firepower in a defensive situation to Biden, certainly thinks so (via The Corner and TPM):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_Q1ecaapAgE

The female questioner who prompted Joe Biden’s advice, in the course of a Facebook town hall on Tuesday, to “buy a shotgun,” called the vice president’s remarks “a little sexist” and described them as “the poorest advice he could give anyone.” Kate Ernest told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that because a double-barreled shotgun only has two rounds, anyone who followed Biden’s advice would be “a sitting duck” after firing both rounds. Biden told Ernest that he had advised his wife, Jill, to “fire two blasts outside the house” in the event of danger.

“I think it was poor advice, and it comes off a little sexist,” Ernest added. “Like, ‘Let me tell you what you need’ versus, you know, ‘Arm yourself or protect yourself in a way that you feel necessary.’”

Frankly, this is where the activism of gun rights should focus — the Kate Ernests of America.  The messaging from gun-rights organizations has focused on the historical reasons for the Second Amendment, particularly on the prevention of a tyrannical government, but those reasons only resonate with the already-converted.  They don’t speak to where most people live now, in this age, where the Second Amendment has the most practical application in self-defense.  With women being the fastest-growing demographic of gun owners, why keep talking about men who died centuries ago?  Start talking about women living in today’s world who need to defend themselves rather than wait to see whether they have enough time to even call 911 before being attacked, raped, and/or murdered.  That will make the patronizing and often sexist undertones of gun control all the more apparent while reaching the unconverted.

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre will speak at 10 ET tonight about the push for universal background checks and the NRA position on those proposals.  The live stream is embedded below, and I’m told that the NRA will be shifting its message more toward what I wrote above.  Here’s a pretty good example of the direction they’ll be going with their NRA Womens’ Network:

Stay positive and focused on women and self-defense. That’s a winning strategy. Let’s see if LaPierre sticks with that tonight.