A rape survivor is urging the anti-sexual assault #MeToo movement to advocate for Second Amendment rights.
Former Temple University student Savannah Lindquist says she was raped during her first year of school. A native Virginian, she grew up with guns her whole life, but because of state and campus carry laws, Lindquist’s gun was locked up on the day of the alleged rape and thus useless.
“As things started to get a little more violent, I knew that I had no way to defend myself,” Lindquist explained in a video featured at Circa. “I couldn’t carry, I didn’t have my gun. My gun was unloaded and locked in my gun cabinet.”
Feeling unsafe on campus post-rape, Lindquist left Temple, which she said was her dream school, to move back home to her home state of Virginia, where the laws are much more pro-gun.
“Temple had been my dream school,” she said. But “not being able to carry on my campus kinda felt like I was being victimized all over again.”
The young woman argued that a woman’s right to self-defense is inextricably linked to any anti-sexual assault movement and regretfully acknowledged the #MeToo movement’s deafening silence on the issue.
“I think the #MeToo movement and the movement for women’s right to self-defense sort of go hand-in-hand,” said the student. “It’s frustrating, but it sometimes feels like when you’re pro-Second Amendment that your story doesn’t matter as much.”
“I’m not advocating that everyone should carry a gun or that everyone should concealed carry on campus, really what I’m advocating for is giving women a choice on how to defend yourself in the way that you best see fit.”
As noted by Circa, Lindquist is not alone in her feelings about women’s self-defense, as women are outpacing men in obtaining concealed carry permits:
Fourteen states report concealed permit data by gender. According to a study by the Crime Prevention Research Center, women accounted for about 36 percent of those permits. Data gathered from eight states that showed that from 2012 to 2016, women were obtaining permits 326 percent faster than men.
WATCH:
H/T HotAir