Sen. John Lee (D-North Las Vegas) has proposed a bill (SB 231) that would allow individuals possessing concealed carry permits to carry guns on university campuses, noting that his bill “is not about campus security” but “personal security.”
The star witness in support of the bill last week was Amanda Collins, a 25-year-old UNR student who was raped at gunpoint in a UNR parking garage three years ago.
“On October 27, 2007 my right to say ‘no’ was taken from me by both James Biela and the Nevada Legislature,” Collins testified on Friday. “If the purpose of the current law is to ensure safety to those on university property then it’s not serving that objective.” Collins later noted the painful irony that she “was assaulted at gunpoint in a gun-free zone.”
Among those opposing Collins’ right to protect herself against being raped, assaulted or murdered in a campus garage was UNR Police Chief Adam Garcia, whose campus police officers were nowhere to be found while James Biela was violently raping Ms. Collins in one of his campus garages. Chief Garcia should be ashamed of himself.
If legislators have any common sense whatsoever, they’ll pass SB 231 – which ought to be named the “Amanda Collins Self-Defense Act” for the courage it took this young woman to come forward and tell her painful story publicly – by unanimous votes in both the Assembly and the Senate.
