Reason.com
Hit and Run
Robbie Soave | 2.20.15
Liberals say guns won't mitigate college rape, and they're right. But affirmative consent won't help, either.
Liberals have proposed several methods for reducing sexual assault on campus that just won't work. Now, evidently, the conservatives are taking their turn.
The New York Times (of all places) recently considered seriously—and with surprising sympathy—the argument that increasing students' access to guns would deter rapists from carrying out their crimes:
Support for so-called campus carry laws had been hard to muster despite efforts by proponents to argue that armed students and faculty members could prevent mass shootings like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007. The carrying of concealed firearms on college campuses is banned in 41 states by law or by university policy. Carrying guns openly is generally not permitted.
But this year, lawmakers in 10 states who are pushing bills that would permit the carrying of firearms on campus are hoping that the national spotlight on sexual assault will help them win passage of their measures.
“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,” State Representative Dennis K. Baxley of Florida said during debate in a House subcommittee last month. The bill passed.
To be clear, I fully support concealed carry on campus. There are plenty of good reasons why students might wish to bring guns on campus; many who walk to class have to pass through crime-ridden areas of town and would feel safer if armed. For others who are legally entitled to carry virtually anywhere but a college campus, the rule against bringing their guns with them when they set foot on college grounds is inconvenient and unnecessary.
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