Guns Stopping Rape

I feel terrible for this woman because she thinks she could have stopped what happened to her:

Amanda Collins, 25, is a wife and new mom, and a concealed weapon permit holder for years. At her father's law office in Reno, she showed us the 9-mm Glock she carries for her safety.

"It's got a pretty standard magazine," she said, "and night sights so you can see in the dark when you're aiming."

However, Collins couldn't aim her gun at the serial rapist who attacked her at the University of Nevada at Reno, where she was a student. That's because, like most public colleges outside of Utah and Colorado, UNR is a "gun free" zone. The rule required her to leave her gun at home, leaving her defenseless the one time she needed its protection most.

In October of 2007, while walking to her car after a night class, Collins was grabbed from behind in a university parking garage less than 300 yards from a campus police office. The school's "gun-free" designation meant nothing to James Biela, a serial rapist with a gun of his own, who saw Collins as an easy target. "He put a firearm to my temple," she recounted, "clocked off the safety, and told me not to say anything, before he raped me."

The university has since installed more emergency call boxes and lights in the parking structure, but Collins says that won't stop an attacker who knows the campus is a gun-free zone, a policy she believes invites crime, and may have even emboldened the man who raped her.

With all due respect to her experience and point of view, what might have stopped her particular rape would not stop all rapes, and the only thing for sure that will stop all rapes is RAPISTS ALWAYS GOING TO JAIL AND NOT RAPING PEOPLE ANYMORE. That's pretty much the only sure thing, and it's also the thing that gets talked about the least, because it's easier to tell victims, over and over, how to defend themselves so that if they can't or don't, it's in some fashion their fault.

A.

Comments

[pansypoo]

probably starts with stopping men taking advantage of drunk co-eds and date rapists.

[Goalkeeper]

Under the scenario set out in Ms. Collins' rape, I do not see how her having a gun would have prevented the rape. Walking alone, grabbed from behind and a gun placed at her temple with the rapist ready to pull the trigger. A crime of opportunity and surprise.

If she had a gun in her purse, or in a shoulder holster, the rapist probably would now have two guns.

I am sorry for her injury, but if everyone has guns, there are more chances for injury, intentional and unintentional.

[Uncommoner]

Here's a thought - there are some crimes that are unacceptable. Rape is at the top of that list. I can think of nothing more vicious and destructive to the human psyche and soul. It is evil.

So why not introduce a bill demanding the death penalty for convicted rapists? How could any man object to a law that would help to protect women, even if all it did was prevent repeat offenders by taking them out of the equation completely. Anyone voting against it could be attacked as being "soft on crime" and "pro-rapist".

Is it wrong to use reprehensible tactics in a good cause?

I am not a right-winger, and I think the death penalty is a serious problem... but so are cruel and unusual crimes. Maybe cruel and unusual punishments are the solution?

[thebewilderness]

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work

1. Don’t put drugs in women’s drinks.

2. When you see a woman walking by herself, leave her alone.

3. If you pull over to help a woman whose car has broken down, remember not to assault her.

4. If you are in a lift and a woman gets in, don’t assault her. You know what? Don’t even ogle her.

5. When you encounter a woman who is asleep, the safest course of action is to not assault her.

6. Never creep into a woman’s home through an unlocked door or window, or spring out at her from between parked cars, or assault her.

7. When you lurk in bushes and doorways with criminal intentions, always wear bright clothing, wave a flashlight, or play “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)” by the Raveonettes on a boombox really loud, so women in the vicinity will know where to aim their flamethrowers.

8. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If it is inconvenient for you to stop yourself from assaulting women, ask a trusted friend to accompany you when in public.

9. Carry a rape whistle. If you find that you are about to assault a woman, you can hand the whistle to your buddy, so s/he can blow it to call for help.

10. Give your buddy a revolver, so that when indifferent passers-by either ignore the rape whistle, or gather round to enjoy the spectacle, s/he can pistol-whip you.

Don’t forget: Honesty is the best policy. When asking a woman out on a date, don’t pretend that you are interested in her as a person; tell her straight up that you expect to be assaulting her later. If you don’t communicate your intentions, the woman may take it as a sign that you do not plan to rape her.

[aimai]

Uncommoner,
Rape actually did have the death penalty, in some states. However, when the penalty for rape is death the rape turns very quickly into rape/murder. So the penalty was lessened in order to lessen the liklihood that the woman would be both raped and murdered.

aimai

[C-h]

Would a gun have prevented the rape? Maybe, maybe not. Would the rapist have stolen her gun? Maybe, maybe not. But what a gun definetly would have done is at least proved the opportunity for self defense and a different outcome. A blanket ban on a second amendment tool takes one of most powerful self-defense options away. Putting all rapists in jail works fine after the fact. And only if the rapist is caught, and certainly not if they kill you. All too late. As horrifying as rape is, just having to take it cause I can't carry my gun would only make it exponentially worse.

[Rmj]

"He put a firearm to my temple," she recounted, "clocked off the safety, and told me not to say anything, before he raped me."

At which point the hero in the movie always gets away from the danger unharmed, and kills the villain.

Sadly, real life is not like that, and if she had had a gun and tried to use it, Ms. Collins might not have lived to tell the tale.

[Athenae]

7. When you lurk in bushes and doorways with criminal intentions, always wear bright clothing, wave a flashlight, or play “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)” by the Raveonettes on a boombox really loud, so women in the vicinity will know where to aim their flamethrowers.

And thebewilderness wins today's Internet.

A.

[Robert M.]

@C-h: I'm a martial artist. One of my instructors was an undefeated amateur kickboxer, and is now a police sergeant who trains SWAT team members in hand-to-hand combat. He has fired his service weapon and been shot, both on multiple occasions. He's an unquestioning supporter of concealed-carry laws, and believes firmly that an armed society is a respectful society. You know what this career bad-ass and combat expert has to say about self-defense and guns?

"If someone points a gun at you, do exactly what they say."

A gun is a tool for making people dead--a fact I'm sure you're familiar with. Unfortunately, it's a strictly offensive tool. If someone is pointing a gun at you, that person has the power to make you dead; your possession of any weapon other than a magical bullet shield is completely irrelevant. If your weapon is in a holster or otherwise in any position other than pointing right back at your assailant, it is entirely irrelevant. Trying to pull a gun (or any other self-defense technique) is statistically overwhelming likely to get you dead.

[Delta]

A weapon in your purse, when you're being held at gunpoint by a rapist, is about as useful as a magic unicorn in your car trunk, 2 rows over. The main difference being that the rapist won't steal your unicorn and kill you with it.

Any woman (or man) who resists a rapist (or armed robber or carjacker or burglar) is too stupid to be trusted with a firearm to begin with.

I'm not the bad-ass Robert M. describes, but I am an ex-cop and I agree with the advice from the bad-ass wholeheartedly.

[Drinking Jim Crow]

If the simple presence of her Glock was the difference between this woman getting raped and not-raped, why wasn't pepper spray, a knife, or a telescoping baton utilised as a handy replacement?

Probably because if she had employed any of those tools of self-defense (just as if she had reached for her gun) this woman might not have been raped, but she almost certainly would have been gravely wounded if not not outright murdered.

Violent crime is awful. And sometimes the answer to a violent person wielding weapons is a proportionately violent counteraction. This anecdote is not representative of one of those times.

[Tommy T]

It's against the law to carry handguns in places where people are drinking.
It's against the law to carry handguns on college campuses - but I repeat myself.

Tommy
(owner of a Glock model 21)

[Uncommoner]

aimai,

Being a Canuck, I'd never heard that. It makes sense, though (sadly)... and I would think it would actually increase the odds of the crime being seriously investigated, if it became rape/murder. Doesn't help protect women, though. Not in the short term, anyways.

Violence is wrong. Violence against those weaker is wrong AND cowardly. I agree that more guns wouldn't have helped in this case... but I don't think fewer guns is the answer either. Is there an answer? We seem psychologically incapable (as a species) of controlling ourselves and educating one another.

[blue cheddar]

I agree with what you have to say.
So many conceivable attack scenarios a person could be in. I've never felt so confidant to move about as when living with and walking around with a very large dog. However, I would feel ridiculous telling everyone they had to have a large dog with them at all times or else...

Just a side note: It's of course the case that we can be attacked when out alone, and by a stranger - it happens. But statistically speaking, last I knew, a rapist/attacker is likely to be in your own circle of known people - like some prick at a party or maybe a husband - and not the unknowns. I haven't checked to see if that's still the case.

[Kaleberg]

Maybe she is banking on the fact that anyone with any sense who sees a woman walking through a darkened parking lot at night staring into the sight of a high powered rifle avoids her and gets the hell out of the area as quickly as he or she can. After all, she might trip on a curb and, if her gun goes off, she might hurt someone.

[hoppy]

I don't believe we even know why some men commit any acts of violence, including rape. Until we understand why that happens I don't believe we can design an antidote.

People who rape or kill are not normal. Normal people can't commit violence against another person. But, why are some people abnormal to that degree? If researchers who work on that problem were to get 10X more research grants I would be much more likely to support that, than if we were to increase the penalties for any act of violence, especially considering that the penalties usually include locking them up together to be violent with each other.

[Jude]

Normal people can't commit violence against another person.

Come again? Violence is a very normal part of human life--doesn't matter whether you're talking about hunter/gatherer, pastoral, agricultural, or what we call modern life. In fact, we're actually much more protected from violence now than people in hunter/gatherer societies ever were. Violence is as normal as eating or breathing; acting as if we're deviating from some utopian human nature is pretty willful blindness.

[pansypoo]

maybe the death penalty would curb rape. like it has ended murder. right? RIGHT?!?