Less guns, more danger

Republican senators in Indiana killed a bill last week, while Democratic representatives in Colorado passed one. Both actions will leave college students more vulnerable to attacks.

Senate Bill 97, authored by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City, died last week in Indianapolis after the Rules Committee denied it a hearing.

The bill would have made it impossible for any state-funded university to ban a person with a concealed carry permit from carrying a gun on campus.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, one of five states that permits concealed weapons on college campuses, a bill passed through the Democratic-controlled House that would allow college administrators to ban guns on campuses.

The bill would negate the March 2012 decision of the Colorado Supreme Court that determined the University of Colorado’s gun ban on the Boulder campus unconstitutional.

The Colorado legislators passed the bill despite the evidence of a 90 percent drop in the rate of sexual assault after Colorado Springs University legalized concealed carry on campus in 2003.

In Indiana, it’s curious why a supermajority GOP Senate would fail to push for a campus concealed carry bill to reach the supermajority GOP House.

Colorado Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, explained why he would vote against campus concealed-carry legislation in the face of the decrease in sexual assault concealed carry laws bring:

“You’re right: there are some gender inequities on college campuses ... It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, it’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at.

“And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop ... pop around at somebody.

“And you might have just made a mistake.”

Salazar’s implication is that women with guns will not use them wisely. Women are too irrational and too paranoid to know when they are actually being attacked. They might shoot a non-attacker.

And, besides, who needs a gun when we have call boxes! And whistles!

And don’t forget, as Sen. Jesse Ulibarri, D-Commerce City, pointed out, ballpoint pens, or, as Minnesota Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Edina, aptly added, mace, tasers, the buddy system and judo.

Democrats, apparently, think women are too stupid and incapable to defend themselves with guns.

Anyway, the government has done enough to protect women — they don’t need to be responsible for defending themselves.

The disturbing thing is that the attitude of our campus administration is the same as that of the Colorado legislators.

After the Newtown, Conn. shootings — which occurred in a gun-free zone — IU President Michael McRobbie announced the campus would “continue to enforce a general ban on firearms on our campuses.”

McRobbie insists that women rely on the University for protection and denies them the opportunity to yield the most effective and proven tool against attackers: a gun.

Some women, like Crayle Vanest, Indiana’s state director for Students for Concealed Carry and the IU chapter president, refuse to accept the administration’s denial of her right to self-defense.

She and other SCC members are planning a week-long demonstration on campus called the Empty Holster Protest on April 4-9. During the protest, students will wear empty holsters to campus to show how the administration’s policies disarm
students.

“The goal is to raise awareness for the cause and open student’s minds to the reality that university policies infringe on our state and federally guaranteed rights,” Vanest said.

Students should support SCC until our state leadership and University administration allow us to exercise our God-given right to self-defense.

Until then, ladies, never leave the house without packing your whistles and ballpoint pens. You never know when you’ll face an attacker.

­— arcarlis@indiana.edu