Don’t victimize me, empower me with the Second Amendment: An appeal from a sexual assault survivor

The following was written by Savannah Lindquist, who is the North American communications chair with Students For Liberty. She is a student at Old Dominion University.

My college experience didn’t go as planned: I was the victim of sexual assault. It was something I thought could never happen to me. This was something that only happened to other people, something you see on “Law & Order: SVU.” Instead of Detectives Benson and Stabler swooping in to save the day, I was left completely broken – replaying the events of that day over and over again in my mind wondering where I could have gone wrong.

I was raised around guns, and was taught about responsible gun ownership at a very young age. When I turned 21 years old and was legally able to carry a gun, I immediately felt safer. Nothing could harm me because my firearm was the great equalizer.

There was one minor issue: my Second Amendment rights didn’t exist on my college campus.

I was naïve and believed what they told me during orientation: that there was no need to worry, because campus police are only a phone call away. All was well until that fateful evening when I became another statistic.

The details of that horrific event don’t matter. What does matter is this: Research has shown that women aged 18-24 are three-to-four times more likely to be victims of sexual violence compared to women in general. Given my background, I would be lying if I said my sexual assault turned me from a gun-grabber to a Second Amendment advocate, but I did have one big realization.

My sexual assault made something very clear: My right to self-defense should not be up for debate.