On campus rape survivor supports Florida campus carry

Shayna Lopez-Rivas | My View

Campus carry is not about opinions, it’s about rights — our fundamental rights, as law-abiding citizens, to protect life and property.

It’s our right to keep and bear arms, to defend ourselves the way we see fit. And our rights do not stop at an imaginary line, where suddenly because we step on campus, we somehow become less responsible, more criminal and less mature. If I am, by Florida law, responsible enough to have a gun off campus, how can anyone tell me I am not responsible enough on campus?

In the most recent legislative committee session in Florida, opposition to the campus carry bill said it was a bad idea to allow concealed carry on campus because students are immature. I am a full-time work-study student at the College of Social Work at FSU. I run an organization called Seminoles Against Sweatshops. I volunteer at a hospital and rape crisis center.

I am 21 and I don’t drink when I carry my gun. I’ve never done drugs. I don’t get into heated arguments off campus and brandish my gun. I am not immature.

On Nov. 13, 2014, a man with a knife raped me on campus. I used pepper spray; it didn’t work. And now every time I look in the mirror and see the scars on my body, I am reminded of that night.

Do you know what it is like to be forced into a secluded area? To be told to not scream? Because I do. I remember the details well enough to know that had I been trained, like I am now, in tactical firearms defense – and had I been carrying – I would not have been raped.

This is not a fantasy. This is my reality and it’s the reason I fight to get the campus carry bill passed. Do I not have the right to lawfully defend myself with a firearm? Because I have that right everywhere else I go.

I undergo continuous tactical training and I’m entering shooting competitions. I am a trained and well-armed woman. I will not be a sitting duck for a rapist or a shooter on a university campus that claims sovereign immunity when it cannot protect its students and continues to insist that students should not be able to protect themselves. I should not have to be unarmed and afraid in the place I work and attend class.

I know what I’ve just said won’t change your mind if you are already opposed to campus carry. But whether you are for or against the bill, I hope you have a better understanding of why I am continuing to fight for it.

Shayna Lopez-Rivas is student at the FSU College of Social Work and Women's Representative for Florida Students for Concealed Carry at FSU.