(Sen. Don Gustavson) – Overall, the Second Amendment saw minor victories in the last session, but sadly, one important pro-Second Amendment bill saw defeat again – one that would allow for law-abiding citizens like Amanda Collins to protect herself while on campus.
Most of you are already aware of Amanda’s attempt to persuade the Nevada Legislature to enable her right to defend herself…her story goes like this:
In 2007, she was walking to her car after class at UNR when she was attacked and raped by a gun-brandishing serial rapist inside a university parking garage less than 300 yards from a campus police office.
Just months later, this same serial rapist went on to brutally rape and murder 19-year old Brianna Dennison – and to this day Amanda has to live with the additional fact that Brianna’s fate might also be different if Amanda, a licensed firearm carrier, had been allowed to carry her own weapon on campus. But because the campus is a designated “gun-free zone,” Amanda’s fate had already been decided.
This was Amanda’s second attempt to persuade the Nevada Legislature to amend their laws in the same fashion that some other states have. During her first attempt throughout the 2011 session, a former Democrat Nevada lawmaker who labored to defeat the bill argued by stating “by the time any student could get a gun, when they were attacked by someone else with a gun if they went for their gun, it would be a bad outcome.”
Apparently, this former lawmaker was oblivious to the fact that getting raped with a gun to your head is already a bad outcome. But that lawmaker misses the bigger point, the point being that any bad outcome is less likely to ever materialize when the bad guys distinguish that citizens are able to protect themselves. Criminals comprehend too well that an advertised “gun-free zone” is a flashing welcome-sign that gives them a license to prey on the helpless. Disarming a victim protects a criminal – it’s as simple as that!
For two legislative sessions in a row now, the Assembly Democrat Judiciary Chairs have blocked Amanda’s Collins and other women like her the right to protect themselves. So the next time you hear the phrase “war on women,” remind yourself which political party is less enthusiastic to allow women the legal right to defend oneself from a serial rapist.
(Sen. Gustavson is a Republican Nevada state senator from Sparks)
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