Will Giving College Women Guns End Sexual Assault On Campus?

According to Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, the only thing “young, hot little girls” on college campuses need to do to prevent rape is carry a gun. Fiore, who has sponsored a bill that would allow guns on college campuses in her state, was quoted in the New York Times yesterday saying that she believed the “sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”

It was Fiore’s incendiary comments that sparked backlash on Wednesday, including over atSlate, where Amanda Marcotte argues that this is a case of pro-gun advocates “hijacking the issue of campus sexual assault to advocate for the long-standing goal of getting more colleges to allow guns on campus.”

The pro-gun advocate’s argument is simple: Women on college campuses would be protected from rapists or the threat of being raped if they carried a gun. But, as Tara Culp-Ressler points out for ThinkProgress, this is just “one of many ways that women are told to take steps toprevent their own rapes.”

Culp-Ressler also brings up several other important points of concern:

“University presidents, college students, and domestic violence experts are all opposed to the idea of allowing concealed weapons on school grounds. They point out that it’s an ineffective policy because of the nature of campus violence; most assaults take place under the influence of alcohol, and the majority don’t occur between strangers.” In fact, 2/3 of assaults arecommitted by someone the victim knows

more: 21 Facts That Will Change The Way You Think About Sexual Assault

John D. Foubert, an Oklahoma State University professor and national president of One in Four, also echoed his concerns to the New York Times. Because a “rape situation usually starts with some sort of consensual behavior…by the time it switches to nonconsensual,” Foubert says it would be “nearly impossible to run for a gun.”

So before we take up arms, let’s consider some reasonable alternatives.

• Educating the Public on Sexual Assault

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  This isn’t the first time a bill like Fiore’s has been introduced, nor is it the first time people have spoken out about the need to arm college students. In 2013, ThinkProgress quoted two Indiana University officials who spoke out against these measures, saying education “about rape culture on college campuses could actually be a more powerful tool than a gun.” The officials argued that the students who “know what constitutes sexual assault and the circumstances in which it usually happens are the ones who have a better chance of protecting themselves.” By educating our youth on what consent is, we can help them recognize when a situation has the potential to turn dangerous.

• Promote Bystander Intervention

  As NPR reports, having a friend or group of friends that support violence against women is a “big risk factor for committing sexual assault.” Because, as Foubert explains, what other men think “matters most to boys and emerging adult men,” it’s important we teach children about violence prevention from a young age. The more children and young adults we educate, the more active and ready bystanders we’ll see on college campuses.