In early January, CNN hosted a town hall on gun violence featuring Anderson Cooper and President Obama. One of the people to ask him a question was Kimberly Corban, a rape survivor who has since take up gun ownership to protect herself and her family. Corban’s question was blunt: “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?”
Obama commended Corban for overcoming a horrific event in her life, adding that his executive actions don’t make it harder for her to purchase firearms, and proceeded to mansplain to her how owning guns could lead to the owner becoming a fatality—an awful thing to say to a survivor of sexual assault, but that’s for another time. Flash-forward to the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting in May, Kristi McMains needed to meet Corban, as her story helped her save her life from a would-be robber that attempted to stab her.
Corban conducted an interview with McMains at the annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. McMains noted that she started to carry “diligently” after hearing Corban’s story. On January 26, she left her law firm on Fourth Street in Louisville and entered the food court. A man, who intended on robbing her, was following her. He was armed with a knife, and McMains knew something was off when both of them entered an elevator and he refused to say which level he wished to make his exit.
Luckily, McMains was armed. Her gun was in her purse, and she said she felt some divine intervention regarding her situation. She felt as if this man was going to kill her—and her instincts proved to be right. She was able to sprint to her car and put the key in the ignition, but was tackled by her assailant. McMains said she was “stabbed at” by the attacker and demanded to give him money.
During the struggle, McMains was able to kick the keys out of the ignition to prevent him from kidnapping her, and was able to reach for her firearm and defend herself; she was able to shoot her attacker twice before he ran off.
“If it weren’t for your story, I may not have been carrying—all the time. So, I did thank you and I wanted to thank you again because you did help save my life. And I have no doubt that I would not be alive if it weren’t for being able to carry a gun,” McMains said. “You can’t rely on other people to save your life when it comes down to it,” she added.
“That’s in your hands.”
Corban said that it’s been ten years since she was attacked, and said that McMains’ story is “the best thing that has happened in those ten years,” regarding what she was trying to do concerning raising awareness for Second Amendment rights and self-defense, especially for women.
“I released my name with the hope that I could save just one person, and if I could save one person it would be worth it” Corban said. “And to have you sitting here, breathing and speaking your story because that makes everything worthwhile.”
Corban closed by saying that having McMains “being here is worth more than anything that anyone can say opposing you taking protection seriously, and standing up for yourself, and now standing up for millions of people like us.”
Guns save lives. Period.
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