Proponents of guns have a compelling new argument. Lawmakers in 10 states are attempting to pass bills that back “campus carry laws,” which would allow students and faculty members to carry firearms on their school campuses. There has long been discussion on whether or not arming more people would prevent mass shootings, with the debate being that if someone had been there to apprehend the person who showed a threat, there would be a decreased chance of that person shooting other people.
However, politicians and lobbyists who support these bills have raised a relevant point: maybe these campus carry laws can also help lower rates of sexual assault, or even prevent it altogether.
“If you’ve got a person that’s raped because you wouldn’t let them carry a firearm to defend themselves, I think you’re responsible,” said Florida Rep. Dennis Baxley during a debate in a House subcommittee in January. In Florida, the bill was passed on Jan. 20.
Debates about these laws are being heard in 10 states, including Nevada, where Assemblywoman Michele Fiore told The New York Times in a phone interview, “If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”
The idea certainly speaks to some people: Amanda Collins, who was raped at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2007, said had she been carrying a gun, she would have been able to stave off her attacker, the Times reported. And a student lobby group called Students for Concealed Carry has seen an increase in female membership, board member and Indiana University senior Crayle Vanest told the Times.
Carrying concealed weapons on college campuses is banned in 41 states. In 24 states, the laws leave the decision up to the universities, with most universities making the decision to ban firearms on their own.
Many experts, however, are not buying this new argument, saying that it’s just gun lobbyists trying to appeal to liberals by exploiting a relevant and controversial issue. And at worst, it shows ignorance about the nature of sexual assault and what would help to decrease it, John Foubert, a professor at Oklahoma State University, told the Times.
“It reflects a misunderstanding of sexual assaults in general,” Foubert said. Foubert is also the national president of One in Four, an organization that provides college campuses with programs to educate and raise awareness of sexual assault. “If you have a rape situation, usually it starts with some sort of consensual behavior, and by the time it switches to nonconsensual, it would be nearly impossible to run for a gun.”
And Clay Risen, a senior editor of the Times op-ed page, made an argument that perhaps resonates the most: “Just saying, letting women carry guns on campus to deter rape also means letting rapists carry guns,” he said in a Wednesday tweet.
This bill may be a good idea in theory, if one subscribes to that Wild West mentality where giving everyone a gun means creating an equal playing field. However, in practice, this can only lead to further misunderstanding what sexual assault really is, victim blaming and ultimately, people dying.
This bill perpetuates the myth of the “stranger danger” rapist, the big scary man who jumps out at his victim on their walk home late at night. In reality, two-thirds to 80 percent of those raped are raped by someone they know, The New Republic reported. Passing this bill is assuming that everyone who is raped wants to kill their rapist, be it someone they just met at a party or someone they thought was their friend.
Further, making rape victims responsible for their own defense by putting guns in their hands is just perpetuating the idea that it is somehow the victim’s “fault” that they were assaulted. Fiore got it wrong when she stated that men will be scared of “hot, young little girls” carrying guns. It’s not only the girl wearing the short skirt or getting drunk at a party who is at risk of being assaulted, and even if they are, it is not their responsibility to protect themselves. It is the rapist’s responsibility to not rape.
Women already carry pepper spray and rape whistles to protect themselves. And there are even more extensive items that can protect women against sexual assault, such as nail polish that detects date rape drugs, and yet rape is still a rampant problem, especially on college campuses. Perhaps the answer is not to arm women with heavier and heavier artillery in hopes it scares men away. Perhaps the answer is just to teach rapists to not rape.
