Gun rights advocates have a new goal: legalizing guns on college campuses nationwide.

Many universities have formed on-campus groups, like Students for Concealed Carry, and some states are drafting bills that promote the legalization of concealed weapons on college campuses, according to a Feb. 18 New York Times article.

Now, gun rights advocates are asserting that concealed carry laws will help prevent sexual assaults on college campuses.

But these gun rights advocates aren’t trying to empower college students against sexual assault. Instead, they’re just taking advantage of a high-profile topic to give their movement a better reputation. Not only is their plan the wrong way to end sexual assault, but it also perpetuates incorrect stereotypes and could lead to more dangerous universities.

Eight states already allow concealed weapons on college campuses, and 10 more are working on bills to join that list. Just two months after a shooter at Florida State University injured three students, a bill passed its House subcommittee. The bill still needs to pass a vote in the House, Senate and be signed by the governor before it becomes a law. Instead of keeping their arguments just about gun rights, these lawmakers have made sexual assault a new selling point for their legislation.

“If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them,” Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R-Nev.) said in an interview with The New York Times. “The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”

Fiore’s statement reveals the incorrect way many lawmakers view sexual assault. They assert that concealed carry laws would decrease sexual assault, but it isn’t always something victims could prevent by having a gun. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at least 80 percent of sexual assaults are committed by an acquaintance of the victim. Knowing the perpetrator could make victims much more reluctant to defend themselves, especially with a weapon.

But the lawmakers’ lack of research is more than just frustrating, it’s damaging to sexual assault activism by exploiting victims and promoting incorrect stereotypes.

In some cases, guns might be ineffective altogether. According to a Dec. 3 Mother Jones article, 57 percent of women sexually assaulted in college are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In these kinds of cases, victims may not even be coherent enough to fight off their attacker, much less use a gun. Someone impaired by drugs or alcohol and unable to consent is still a victim of sexual assault, even if they did not try to resist it.

Drug and alcohol use doesn’t just make guns ineffective in many sexual assault cases; guns themselves create dangerous situations. If students are armed, the impulsive behavior that accompanies drugs and alcohol could easily lead to gun accidents.

Likewise, legalizing guns on college campuses wouldn’t limit their use to potential victims of sexual assault. Everyone would have the right to carry weapons, including potential attackers. College campuses already have drastically lower homicide rates than the rest of the United States, why change a system that already works?

The downsides to concealed carry laws on college campuses are enormous and outweigh any possibility that they will decrease sexual assault. But this wasn’t the goal for lawmakers anyway; preventing sexual assault was obviously just an afterthought, exploited to frame their plan in a more positive light. Both colleges and lawmakers should be focused on ending sexual assault, but concealed carry legislation is an ineffective and harmful way to do so.

Kathryn Krawczyk is a freshman magazine major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at kjkrawcz@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @KathrynKrawczyk.

Published on February 26, 2015 at 12:22 am