At the time of an attack we all know that the one thing that can save you is not a phone call to the police. The following is an account of a woman that was attacked on her college campus. While she had a concealed carry permit, she wasn't allowed to have the gun on campus. This is her story...
In college eight years ago, I was raped in a parking garage only feet from the campus police office.
I could see the police cruisers parked for the night as this stranger raped me, pistol to my head. I knew no one was coming to help me.
At the time of my attack, I had a Nevada concealed carry permit. But in Nevada, permit holders are not allowed to carry firearms on campuses. As someone who obeys the law, I left my firearm at home when I went to school. The law that was meant to safeguard me – the gun-free zone – only guaranteed I would be defenseless.
Eventually the man was caught, tried and convicted – not just for using a gun in gun-free zone, but also for raping two other women and murdering one. My attacker was not a student, nor did he have a concealed-carry weapon permit.
I still wonder what would have been different if I’d had my weapon that night. But here’s the truth: I feel certain that I would have been able to stop the attack. Not only that, but two other rapes would have been prevented and three young lives would have been saved, including my own.
Any survivor of rape can understand that the young woman I was when I walked into the parking garage that night was not the same woman who left. My life has never been the same. Campus carry would have saved my family and me a great deal of untold torment.
My case is a perfect example. Despite law enforcement’s best efforts, they can’t be everywhere at once. All I wanted was a chance to effectively defend myself. The choice to participate in one’s own defense should be left to the individual, not mandated by the government. I should not have to hand over my safety to a third party. Laws that prohibit campus carry turn women like me into victims.
(Contributing Source: Amanda Collins via the nytimes.com. The woman pictured above was not the author of the story or the original vicitim.)