First and foremost, please do not turn this into another gun control debate (yes, I searched the forum and read the whole thing). Lets just agree to disagree on the gun debate and not all turn into official authorities on either side and get this thread locked too.
As a karate instructor I teach a lot of female self defense courses and as a cross-dresser I can see first hand how the topics of female self defense and cross-dresser self defense closely relate to each other. For that reason I wrote a self defense for cross-dressers post on my blog. I don't mean to shamelessly advertise my blog but if you're curious to read the whole thing you can find it here: http://www.mandyflcd.com/2009/08/liv...s-another-day/.
In my blog post I stated the absolute best self defense move anyone can learn and, believe it or not, it is the easiest to learn. The move is simple... avoid the situation in the first place! This is done by being aware of your surroundings, reacting to your surroundings, and appearing strong and confident.
Again, sorry to advertise my blog post but I think that this is a very important topic to know about if not discuss. I know I have avoided a few situations that could have turned out to be quite harmful just by being aware of what was going on around me and taking the preventative steps to avoid the unfolding situation.