Republican Ted Cruz's claims about rape and guns in Australia slapped down
Australian women unexpectedly found themselves a focal point of an American debate on guns this month, when Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz lamented how we had become "unarmed victims" due to the Howard government gun buyback program and more frequently susceptible to sexual assault.
"After Australia did that [gun buyback program], the rate of sexual assaults, the rate of rapes, went up significantly, because women were unable to defend themselves," the Texan senator, who once famously released a video of himself cooking bacon on the barrel of a machine gun, told a radio host. 
"There's nothing that criminals or terrorists like more than unarmed victims."
The claim was thoroughly debunked by The Washington Post this week, which reported that not only was there no evidence of a spike in sexual assault attributed to the buyback, but there was no evidence of firearms being significantly used by Australian women for self-defence against rape before this program either.
Cruz's claim was not simply wrong though, it was a cynical and contemptible attempt to use a false concern for women's safety to justify the stonewalling of sensible gun reform in the US and continuation of polices that actually make American women, and the entire community, more vulnerable to harm. Cruz prides himself on his pro-gun record, one PAC that backs him even bragged that "after Sandy Hook [elementary school massacre], Ted Cruz stopped Obama's push for new gun control laws" in an ad.
Australia's relatively low rate of gun deaths (1.4 homicides per million compared to 29.7 per million in the US) and virtual absence of mass shootings are increasingly cited by American politicians pleading for sensible gun reform, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, and media commentators like John Oliver
This compelling argument clearly has the US gun lobby and Republicans nervous, given the regularity with which pro-gun voices are spreading distortions about the effects of gun control in Australia, from Fox News host Tucker Carlson last year telling viewers Australia had "no freedom", or the recent National Rifle Association manifesto warning repeatedly of the "extreme" nature of Australian laws.
Cruz's comments are just the latest attempt to try to scare Americans into believing that Australians are all cowering under the bed, defenceless and in fear, or living in some kind of dictatorship. 
His claim also fits in with an attempt by the gun lobby to exploit growing awareness about sexual assault and position itself as a pro-woman solution.
In 2015, as the country grappled with reports of widespread sexual assault on university campuses, some Republicans took the opportunity to push for more guns on campus, or campus carry laws, with one politician telling The New York Times "If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them."
While the idea of women shooting their would-be rapists may be an emotionally powerful one, as popularised by films such as Thelma and Louise, the reality is far more complex.
As opponents of these laws point out, sexual assaults on campus (and elsewhere in life) are most likely to be perpetrated by someone known to the victim rather than a lurking stranger, and may start in a situation that switches from consensual to non-consensual, making locating and using a gun impractical and unlikely. 
Instead, having guns more freely available in a society makes women less safe, not more so. 
Women experiencing domestic violence are more likely to be killed in homes where there is a gun. "For women in America, guns are not used to save lives, but to take them," the Violence Policy Centre said it its latest report.
A forthcoming study from Boston University also shows a "strong correlation", according to Slate, between rates of gun ownership in a state and the rate of women being killed by someone they know. 
"Our study confirms that a greater availability of firearms does not appear to protect women from homicides committed by strangers," author Michael Siegel told Slate. "But it does appear to increase the risk for firearm homicides committed by non-strangers."
Previous studies have shown that owning a gun does not make a person, man or women, more likely to survive an assault in general. In fact, one oft-cited paper found people in possession of a gun were actually more than four times more likely to die in an assault that those who did not own a gun.
More broadly, Cruz's comments are typical of the cynical way women's bodies and sexual assault are used in political debate, particularly by the religious right in America. "Protecting" women from rape is not only an increasingly beloved argument of the gun lobby, it has also been a favourite argument to justify racism and violence. 
Protecting white women from rape (or even consensual sexual contact) by black men was a rallying cry of the Klu Klux Klan and of 20th century lynch mobs. Dylann Roof, the young white supremacist who slaughtered nine black parishioners in a Charleston church in 2015 reportedly told his victims "You rape our women, and you're taking over our country, and you have to go."
Many of the same politicians who profess a desire to keep women safe from harm show no such concern when it comes to  the importance of decent free healthcare for poor women, safe and legal access to abortion, or serious sexual assault prevention policies.
Australian women don't want Ted Cruz's fake concern. Most are relieved and proud to live in a country where access to firearms is heavily regulated and our lives are infrequently, if ever, touched by gun violence. 
What women in Australia and the US need are serious policies from their political leaders to allow them to lead healthy lives free from violence and sexual assault, not cynical attempts to exploit rape to push agendas that actually make us all less safe.