Antonia Okafor is a black graduate student who carries a gun for self-defense and some of the New York Times readership is extremely bothered by it.
On July 24 Okafor wrote a NYT opinion piece, in which she explained why she owns a gun, why she carries it, and why she thinks campus carry is the most logical way to empower women to protect themselves from predators in the university setting.
She wrote of life before she carried a gun, of leaving the university classroom late at night, walking “through the sprawling parking lots” to get to her car. She had a rape whistle and a cell phone–neither of which are weapons, much less defensive weapons. She said, “I would pray no one was lurking in dimly lit areas or behind cars.” And she explained her fear was real, rather than imagined, as she had been assaulted as a child.
Moreover, Okafor cited a Bureau of Justice Statistics study showing that that one in five female undergraduates claims they were assaulted in college.
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