Lawmakers in 10 states are advancing legislation to allow guns on campus to fight sexual assault. Georgia legislators and the national media are watching closely. Proponents claim armed co-eds are less likely to be victimized and more likely to escape with their virginity intact.
As the parent of a college-bound daughter, I am a target of the campaign to put a gun in her hands. Of course, I want her to be safe at school. So as my husband and I prepare to spend tens of thousands of dollars on her education, shouldn’t we be willing to spend hundreds on an effective means of self-defense? Just in case?
As a former college co-ed, I remember several situations in which my safety seemed at risk. Would I have felt safer with a gun in my pocket? The lawmakers advancing this legislation seem certain I would say, “Yes.” If I answered solely on the basis of my feelings, I might.
But as a former advertising executive, I understand the power of feelings to compel consumers to purchase things they don’t actually need — some of which have the potential to do them grave harm. I spent countless hours over many years helping clients generate demand to boost their sales, so I’m well aware that the gun industry must do the same in order to maximize theirs.
When considered from this vantage point, the latest guns-equal-safety legislative initiative strikes me as an opportunistic ploy to leverage recent headlines, along with helicopter parent paranoia, to position guns as the antidote to both risk and fear. That may be smart marketing, but it isn’t smart legislating. Nor do I think it would be good parenting.
As the wife of a psychiatrist, I knowcampus sexual assaults often begin as consensual conduct between acquaintances, not as attacks by threatening strangers. I know alcohol abuse and drug use on campus lower inhibitions and increase the likelihood of impaired judgment resulting in danger and harm. And I know college student suicide is a significant risk made more lethal by the presence of guns.
I also know that, recently, seven medical specialty societies, the American Bar Association and the American Public Health Association joined forces to declare gun-related injuries “a public health crisis that should be solved free of political influence.” They jointly declared their collective backing for greater gun safety measures of many kinds.
Notably, guns on campus wasn’t one of them.
So, as gun sellers and their legislative marketing reps do their best to create a fear-based “need” to buy their product — and legislate a push to do so — I will arm myself with salient facts and the wisdom that comes with age and experience.
No weapon can replace good judgment as a deterrent against campus sexual assault.
Susan Radulovacki and her daughter Katie live in Atlanta.
