Dr. Harold Pease
Meet Amanda Collins, a University of Nevada, Reno Campus student, who was brutally raped in the same parking garage where campus police park their cruisers, less than 100 yards from the police station. What is different about her, from the approximately 9 other students raped per day on college campuses throughout the United States, is that it happened near the police station and she had a concealed weapons permit which authorized her to carry a gun everywhere except on campus. She maintains that it probably would not have happened had she been allowed to carry her concealed weapon. What is worse, is that she is haunted by the knowledge that she was the first of three rapes and one murder which all could have been avoided.
With respect to her right to have a concealed weapon she wondered, “why I could be trusted at the deli shop across the street [to carry a gun], and then as soon as I crossed that arbitrary line, I was suddenly deemed incompetent and unable to make sound decisions or untrustworthy for whatever reason by the same authorities who granted me the permission to carry in the first place.”
It turns out that the individual who raped her, James Biela, now sitting on death row, ended up killing yet another rape victim, 19-year-old Brianna Denison. It was Amanda Collin’s drawing of him that allowed the police to find and arrest him ten months later but Amanda, having first fired a gun with her father at age 5 or 6, could have killed him in self-defense with one well-placed bullet.
Collins argues, “My inability to be able to carry allowed [Biela] to continue assaulting women, and ultimately he murdered one, too.” Her mother said it best when confronting the university chancellor, “ If guns aren’t the answer, then what is? Where were your police when my daughter was being raped?” Next door was apparently not good enough.
So what has the University of Nevada, Reno Campus done to prevent the same thing happening again? The lighting in the parking lot has been improved and they installed more call boxes so victims can get help. What is Amanda’s response to this? “A call box above my head when I am being straddled wouldn’t be any more help than the police that night. What am I supposed to do, ask my attacker to hold on and then run and push the button, then fight off my attacker while telling the operator what’s going on (Fighting Chance, by David Burnett, First Freedom, Sept. 2011, pp. 22-28)?”
When institutions deny their students the right to defend themselves—even making it a criminal behavior to carry a gun with the intent to protect oneself—they then assume that responsibility unto themselves. When they fail to provide the protection that they deny are they responsible? This is presently being tested in the courts and so far it looks promising for future victims. Victims unprotected by their colleges or universities are suing their institutions.
Some might argue that allowing everyone qualifying to have a concealed weapon on campus would invite frequent “shoot-outs.” This has proven not so in Utah which has had such a law for sometime. Colorado has left concealed carry to the board of directors of each campus so some allow it and others do not. A national campaign to open this part of society to firearms is gaining momentum. If you wish to be better informed on this issue see www.concealedcampus.org. More than half of the Texas House of Representatives has signed as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns for both students and professors. Texas has 38 public universities and more than half a million students. Wisconsin and Virginia are also liberalizing their former views against concealed weapons on campus.
Yes Amanda, you could have saved three rapes and a murder but your story of such is resonating to thinking people with the reality that first responders (police) “are good and essential and necessary—but instant responders are better. The university takes instant responders out of the equation” and, unfortunately, the victims are the innocent—often dead.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.