Campus Carry: Another First Person Perspective

Guest commentary: Do you support campus carry or do you support rape? - Naples Daily News:
(September 15, 2015)

Opinion from a woman who objects to limitations on concealed carry on college campus.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reports 20-25 percent of female college students are victimized by rape, that is 1 in 5. Further, one third of the rapes occur on college campuses. Those facts are being swept under the rug by colleges and universities. If gun-free-zones and whistles worked, why are so many women still being raped? As a woman licensed to carry a firearm for protection, I can defend myself off campus, but the second I step on campus, I no longer have the right to defend myself. I must surrender constitutional rights that guarantee my right to keep and bear arms and of self-defense to get a college education. Effectively, I become a ward of the university but the university has no legal duty or responsibility for my safety. In fact, they hide behind sovereign immunity that protects them from civil suits and criminal prosecution for failing to protect me.

I spent 20 years on college campus, both as a student and as an employee, and I agree with Rebekah that she is unfairly discriminated against when she is disallowed to protect herself in a "Gun Free Zone" ... which is typical of almost every college campus in America.

In fact, as a mature male employee, I was concerned with my right to carry on campus; I typically stayed late at night to complete my work, and found the lack of adequate lighting in EMPLOYEE parking lots to be intimidating.  When I was a student, I just ... tried to look tough.  (That was 50 years ago, and the situation has not improved!)

Rebekah doesn't have that 'looking tough' option; her concerns are legitimate.

College administrators are so worried about Virginia Tech type onslaughts, but they don't seem to understand that their 'campus carry' rules are not providing any protection to their students, staff OR faculty.

Of course, any college that suffers an 'incident' because they haven't rigorously imposed draconian no-gun rules will be held up as a college that "doesn't care about gun violence".  (As if they could stop it!)

This is another Gun Free Zone situation, and there is no good solution.  Armed attacks (or "merely" the common rape and assault patterns on a campus where testosterone rules) will continue, but the first time someone attempts to defend against assault, the store will not be about("ho hum, another boring news day") Campus Rape but about a college that has failed to protect its students against gunfire.

Well, Hell .. there's no good solution for the Joan or Jill who has to decide whether to defend herself against assault, or against both legal and COLLEGE ADMINISTRATIVE proscriptions.

Any student who decides to protect herself with a gun may perhaps protect her honor, but she will lose her scholarship, her enrollment, and the money she paid to enroll in this death-trap which is the American College Campus.

And she will never again be allowed to enroll in another institution of higher learning in her home state.

And even if she should fail to protect herself, and the story becomes public, she is not only a victim of assault but she is also unable to continue her education at the college level.  Because she tried to use a weapon to accomplish the same degree of self-defense which would be available to her if she was two blocks away from the college campus.

What kind of America is this?

NOTE: In Oregon .. as I have noted previously on this venue ... it is legal for persons with a CHL (Concealed Handgun License) to carry on campus.  If found in possession with a weapon, a CHL holder cannot be prosecuted.

But the college can take steps:  if an employee, the person will be fired 'with or without cause'.
If a student, the enrollment will terminate immediately.  The  fees and registration charges which the student has paid will not be returned.  There will be no option to re-enroll on any other campus within the State University System.