‘Stop or I’ll toot’ is not safe for women

In light of the recent attacks of young women near and on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, the school has taken to passing out rape whistles as a method of protection. What is a girl supposed to do with this? Throw it at her attacker?

These attacks have forced the realization that students have no real protection on campus. If they are attacked, they can struggle and attempt to scream, and if there is a school shooting, they can hide under a desk and pray. The anti-gun laws on campus limit a student’s right to survive. Students should have the right to protect themselves—on or off campus.

If a person has a concealed-weapon permit and is allowed to carry their gun across the state, why should that few square miles of campus be any different? Had the serial rapist known there was a great possibility that one of those women was holding a gun, the likelihood of him still attacking would have decreased exponentially.

Cities with more stringent anti-gun laws also seem to face more crime. In 1976, Washington, D.C., enacted very restrictive gun control laws and since then, the city’s murder rate has skyrocketed 134 percent. In 1966, New Jersey adopted one of the most stringent gun laws in the nation; two years later, the murder rate was up 46 percent and the robbery rate had nearly doubled. If lawmakers don’t see too few guns in law-abiding citizens’ hands as the problem—not too many guns—then they should.

Strict anti-gun laws protect criminals and cause law-abiding citizens to suffer. People who choose not to break the law have no guns, but this doesn’t stop those who decide they are above and beyond the law. The criminals feel safe because the person they are about to rob, rape or murder has no protection. This is true on almost any college campus.

A rapist or shooter feels safe because that person knows that not one person on campus has a gun, except the small numbers of police officers who are spread thin across the campus.

The threats of violence and rape against women on the UNR campus calls for a greatly needed change. If a person is deemed responsible enough to have a concealed-weapons permit by the state of Nevada, then they should be considered responsible enough to carry a gun on campus.

When people are allowed to defend themselves, these vile creatures who prey on unsuspecting victims will think twice. No one wants any interaction to be a greater risk than it has to be, including the criminal minds that leak onto campus.

The argument for not allowing guns on campus is weak at best. The faculty wants to create a safe environment for students. Well, this is not working. And the failure isn’t just at UNR; look at Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech and so many other schools. None of these kids received a safe campus. Had one of the students in one of those classrooms had a gun, the loss could have been so much smaller.

The left loves to call conservatives “warmongers” or “gun-obsessed.” If the need to maintain our protection and security makes us gun-obsessed, then all I can do is laugh. Students have a right to a secure environment and if their school is not giving security to them, then why shouldn’t they give it to themselves?

If concealed weapons are allowed on campus, I will be the first in line to secure my own safety with a concealed weapons permit.