was a 20-year-old student completing her sophomore year at the
University of Northern Colorado. She had just finished finals ,summer
was on its way. She had her whole life ahead of her.
Then, the
unthinkable happened. Around five in the morning, a man broke into her
apartment in Greeley, Colo., and, for almost two hours, sexually
assaulted her.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to die,’” Corban, now 30,
told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “There’s no going back
from that.”
Corban’s story did not exactly have a happy ending or, at least, the ending is ever-evolving. Though her assailant is now
serving 24 years to life in prison, she struggled with depression, PTSD
and stress-related seizures. And, speaking about her experience, she
came to realize how important it was for women to have access to guns to
protect themselves.
Then, Thursday night on national television,
she got to confront the man she thought wanted to take her guns away:
President Obama.
“As a survivor of rape, and now a mother to two
small children you know, it seems like being able to purchase a
firearm of my choosing, and being able to carry that wherever my me
and my family are it seems like my basic responsibility as a parent at
this point,” she told Obama during “Guns In America,” CNN’s town hall, after the president announced executive orders on gun control Tuesday.
“I
have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that
happen again to myself or my kids. So why can’t your administration see
that these restrictions that you’re putting to make it harder for me to
own a gun, or harder for me to take that where I need to be is actually
just making my kids and I less safe?”
First, Obama praised Corban for showing up.
“Well,
Kimberly, first of all, obviously you know, your story is horrific,”
he said. “The strength you’ve shown in telling your story and, you know,
being here tonight is remarkable, and so really proud of you for
that.”Then, Obama tried, at length, to answer her question. He pointed out
that, though he didn’t think Corban’s guns necessarily made her safer,
he’s not trying to take them away.
“I just want to repeat that
there’s nothing that we’ve proposed that would make it harder for you to
purchase a firearm.” And: “You have to be pretty well trained in order
to fire a weapon against somebody who is assaulting you and catches you
by surprise.” And: “There’s always the possibility that that firearm in a
home leads to a tragic accident.” And: “All I’m focused on is making
sure that a terrible crime like yours that was committed is not made
easier because somebody can go on the Internet and just buy whatever
weapon they want without us finding out whether they’re a criminal or
not.”
Corban wasn’t impressed.
“I would say it was more of a non-response,” she told The Post. “He kind of dodged the question.”
Saying
Obama was working without a script or a teleprompter, Corban criticized
the president’s insistence on talking about how guns endanger children
every time he “got jammed” at the town hall. Doesn’t he understand that
she has guns because she wants to keep her children safe in her family’s home?
she said, mentioning that
her daughter will be a year old soon. “It’s not just on the news. It’s
not just in far-off places. My nightmares are real. They are my
memories. I don’t want that for my own kid.”
“I
actually typically try not to disclose that just for safety’s sake,”
she said. “I do have a small concealed carry and I have other firearms
which I choose to keep in my home.” To the president’s point that
weapons can bring tragedy in homes, like hers, with small children, she
said her guns are “completely secure.”
“You don’t have to
carry a firearm,” she said. “I’m not telling you that you need to. I
just want you to respect my right to do that myself.”
