On Sept. 14, I received a third Campus Security and Safety email about a sexual assault in one week.
According to RAINN, 26.4% of undergraduate women will experience sexual assault. This issue cannot be solved with flyers on bulletin boards and presentations shown at Camp War Eagle.
Students are adults and should be allowed the freedoms of adults. This includes the freedom to defend themselves. Auburn University policy bans weapons on campus, even for those with a valid permit.
This policy only harms the innocent.
Auburn cannot meaningfully restrict weapon possession since they do not and cannot search everyone who sets foot on campus. Further, the most powerful enforcement tool at the university’s disposal is to expel or trespass someone who gets caught with a weapon. Thus, anyone who does not fear expulsion is unaffected by the ban.
Even if the ban were enforceable, it would still greatly harm our students. A weapon is the only thing that gives a 90-pound woman meaningful ability to defend herself from a 200-pound attacker. By restricting her basic human right to self-preservation, the university is complicit in the continuing sexual assault crisis.
There is no law in the state that bans concealed pistol permit holders from carrying on campus; That restriction comes from the university. A federal judge has ruled that Auburn is required to uphold the 1st Amendment since it is a public university. I do not believe it is unreasonable to expect Auburn to uphold the 2nd Amendment, as well.
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Auburn would not be the first university to allow permitted students to carry. Georgia public universities, like Georgia Southern, allow permitted individuals to exercise this right. According to information from College Factual, Auburn’s reported per capita assaults on women are nearly four times as frequent as Georgia Southern’s.
On-campus or not, this maxim will hold true: the person most capable of protecting you will always be you. The university must allow students and faculty to exercise their right to protect themselves.
Daniel Corbett is a senior in aerospace engineering and computer science.
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