Rep. Rehwinkel Vasilinda backs guns on campus bill

For Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda it was personal. The Democratic legislator from Tallahassee told a story about how she used her gun to fend off an attacker when she was in college.

Then she voted with a majority of House subcommittee members to allow people with concealed weapon permits to carry guns on college campuses.

Bucking opposition from the United Faculty of Florida and university police chiefs, the House Higher Education and Workforce Subcommittee approved Rep. Greg Steube's HB 4005 11-2, which passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee earlier this month. It has one more committee stop. An identical bill, SB 176, sponsored by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Pensacola, has cleared two Senate committees.

Rehwinkel Vasilinda voted for the bill, citing its ability to give people, specifically women, the option of protecting themselves on campus. She said someone attempted to rape her in her apartment and that she "was able to get to my gun and was able to stop the rape."

Rehwinkel Vasilinda chose not to disclose where the attack occurred, only saying she was a student at the time and that she never reported her attacker, who she knew.

"I understand that this bill is not about sexual assault or sexual battery," she said. "But it is about self-defense and I would vote for every woman to be able to have that tool if they so desired."

Critics of the controversial bill have said the bill creates more problems than it solves. FSU President John Thrasher and student body president Stefano Cavallaro both oppose it, as does the United Faculty of Florida (UFF) and Florida A&M University Police Chief Terence Calloway.

Rep. Dave Kerner, D-Palm Springs, said while he acknowledges there are two sides to the issue, more guns on campus isn't the answer.

"I refuse to believe that the policy answer, the legislative answer to the culture of sexual assault, the culture of mental health and mass shootings on our campus is arming our students with weapons," he said.

UFF president Tom Auxter said the bill would increase the likelihood of accidental shootings and discharges on campus. Steube, R-Sarasota, said concealed weapon permit holders can already carry in public places like malls and stores and there hasn't been "mad mayhem."

J.D. Withrow, the chief of the University of South Florida Police Department, said officers would have difficulty determining who is the victim and who isn't in a campus shooting and that people with a concealed weapon permit do not have the preparation to respond to a shooting.

"They don't necessarily have the training or experience to determine whether if they miss, they're going to hit someone else," Withrow said. "It's going to make our jobs extremely difficult."

Rebekah Hargrove, president of Students for Concealed Carry at FSU, said while she stands behind police departments, they can't be everywhere all the time.

"There's still a response time and we cannot guarantee that police are going to get there in time," she said. "So I have a constitutional right to defend myself if I were ever to be attacked because I don't want to be a victim."

FAMU freshman Brandon Johnson said the bill is simply not needed.

"This bill creates too much anxiety; it's not necessary on campus," he said. "I don't see a reason why we should give guns to students instead of funding police departments."

Marion Hammer, a past president of the National Rifle Association and executive director of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida, said one in five female college students are sexually assaulted and that they need the tools to protect themselves.

"The plain truth is campuses are not safe. They are gun-free zones where murderers and rapists, they commit their crimes without being harmed by their victims," she said. "Only the victim has the chance to actually stop the crime."