Amanda Collins blames a state ban on concealed handguns on public-college campuses for leaving her vulnerable to the stranger who raped her in a parking garage eight years ago at the University of Nevada at Reno.
In recounting the incident in testimony before state legislatures there and elsewhere, Ms. Collins has argued that she would have been much better equipped to fend off the man who jumped her had state law not required her to leave at home a pistol for which she had a concealed-weapons permit.
"Had I been carrying that night, there is no doubt in my mind that at some point I would have been able to stop my attack," Ms. Collins, now a director of the advocacy group Women for Concealed Carry, says in avideo produced by the National Rifle Association. Noting that her assailant went on to kill one woman near the campus and to rape others, she says she speaks out about what she experienced because "it is imperative that the legislatures see this isn’t all theory."
The idea that allowing concealed handguns on campuses would protect female students has gained currency as a result of heightened attention to campus sexual assault. As The New York Times reported on Thursday, lawmakers in 10 states, so far, are hoping that concern about sexual assault at colleges will help them win passage of measures allowing concealed weapons on campuses.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Concealed-Handguns-Mainly-Miss/190233