When anyone is violated and forced to do something against their will it is wrong and the steps to preventing it from happening again should be taken seriously. It seems that the issue of women and rape has become a joke and that the severe topic is not a big concern for politicians.

It is senseless to allow students to carry guns on a college campus. But a statement made by Colo. Rep. Joe Salazar (D) implied that women simply cannot be trusted with guns.

“Salazar in Colorado, arguing against concealed carry on campus, said: ‘It’s why we have call boxes. It’s why we have safe zones. That’s why we have the whistles, because you just don’t know who you’re going to be shooting at. And you don’t know if you feel like you’re going to be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop … pop a round at somebody,’” a Washington Post article stated.

Salazar may have not intended to indicate that women would not be responsible while defending themselves with a weapon, but his argument that women should solely rely on whistles and ‘call boxes’ is quite preposterous. Guns may not be the answer since there are other less-harsh weapons, such as mace. To add, if a woman is raped in a place where nobody is around, which is typically the case, a whistle will not be of assistance and will probably not save her life.

Many women were offended by Salazar’s statement because not only did he entail that women are paranoid beings, but he also discussed a serious topic in a lackadaisical manner. People should not feel unsafe around women with guns because they are women, but simply because they are people.

According to ThinkProgress, Republican women in Colorado thought it would be best to make a mockery of sexual violence since they opposed Salazar’s idea of using whistles to prevent rape.

“Of course, the fact that Salazar implied that women may be too emotional to recognize whether or not someone is actually threatening them is offensive, and reinforces the deeply-entrenched attitude that women can’t always be trusted because they sometimes falsely ‘cry rape,’” the ThinkProgress article stated.

The disturbed women created a fake “rape defense kit.” The fake kit was labeled “In Case of Rape, Robbery, or Assault OPEN IMMEDIATELY” and it included a whistle and a pen. It is apparent that in case of an emergency this rape kit would do nothing to help prevent rape from occurring, which reiterates the argument that whistles are no weapon at all and should not be used in a state of emergency.

An article published in The Washington Times explained that eventually Salazar apologized for any offense that he had caused across the nation, nonetheless he stays firm on his position that even “permit-carrying, trained women do not need firearms to protect themselves on the campuses of Colorado’s public universities.”

Guns will not solve rape, yet something has to be done.  Although many continue to joke about preventing rape, all should know that it is a major concern and that politicians have the potential to help prevent sexual assault on college campuses. This rape culture, as some call it, should undoubtedly be taken more seriously and people in authority should realize that rape is no joke at all.