Gun Control Rule At Dartmouth College Denies Taylor Woolrich Protection From Stalker With ‘Rape Kit’

A gun control rule at Ivy League college Dartmouth is preventing student Taylor Woolrich from protecting herself with a concealed carry license even though police say she has a sexual predator who once stalked her while armed with what reports are calling a “rape kit” consisting of a slip noose, a knife, gloves and other items.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, the civil rights movement led by the NAACP believes that so-called Trayvon Martin gun control laws should be implemented and the Stand Your Ground laws repealed even though Zimmerman’s defense team only used standard self-defense. But gun control proponents seem to be losing the political battle in the courts since even the Washington D.C. gun control laws were ruled unconstitutional by a judge.

The junior college students says Dartmouth administrators told her they won’t let her carry a gun on campus even though she has a confirmed stalker from her high school days in San Diego. Woolrich was 16 years old when 67-year-old Richard Bennett kept staring at her while she was working at a job in a cafe. The man even followed her home and demanded that she talk to him, claiming he was “trying to protect her” from some threat. In response, the girl filed a restraining order that the man ignored.

Woolrich says the stalker continued to harass her for two years when she went to Darthmouth college and even promised to fly across the country to see her. She dismissed the threat until this happened:

“I thought they were empty threats, but when I came home from school last summer, he was at my front door within eight hours of my plane landing. That’s when I realized how serious it was.”

The family called the police. After Bennett was arrested, a search of his car found the so-called rape kit. The man faces a charge of felony stalking, but oddly enough, a loophole in gun control laws allows criminals convicted with misdemeanor stalking crimes to legally purchase guns. Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman for Everytown For Gun Safety, claims that a “study of incidents in 10 major U.S. cities found that nearly nine in 10 attempted murders of women involved at least one incident of stalking in the year before the attempted murder.” This particular loophole is being targeted by a Senate bill called Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act but it has yet to pass Congress.

Although the alleged potential rapist is currently in jail, Woolrich says she looked into the gun control laws near the college and she’s able to get a concealed carry permit even though she is not yet age 21. The New Hampshire Sheriff’s Licensing Division says she qualifies for an exception based upon her circumstances. But Dartmouth college has instituted a campus gun ban and spokesman Justin Anderson say they will make not exception for Woolrich:

“It’s strictly prohibited and we are not in the habit of making exceptions. But we certainly do everything we possibly can to make all our students feel safe. We feel that it is a top priority. We are equipped and committed to providing the best safety possible for all our students.”

The only safety options that Dartmouth college will provide for female students fearing the potential of rape is to provide an escort from campus security if she feels unsafe after dark. Woolrich believes the the college’s gun control rules put her at risk:

“There’s no option. There’s no one to go to. They don’t want to hear my case…. What they don’t understand is that it’s not enough. Stalkers just don’t only show up after dark. Unless they have an armed guard in front of my dorm room, I’m not sure how safe I will be. I don’t think there’s much an unarmed guard can do…. Every morning I check the inmate lookup online to see if he has made bail. I feel safe for now, but the day he gets out is the day I will have to leave Dartmouth.”

Do you think Dartmouth college should make an exception to their gun ban, especially since current gun control laws allow stalkers to purchase a weapon while a potential rape victim like Taylor Woolrich is disarmed?