Greeley rape victim challenges Obama's stand on guns at meeting

Greeley Tribune ^ | 9 Jan 16 | Catherine Sweeney

[real saxophonist]

Greeley rape victim challenges Obama's stand on guns at meeting

A Greeley resident and rape survivor spent Friday organizing interviews in the Eastern time after she hit the national spotlight for criticizing President Barack Obama on national television.

Kimberly Corban took vacation time from the Weld District Attorney’s office, where she works as the public information officer, to take the stage on CNN’s “Guns in America” town hall special Thursday.

“I was running on the treadmill at the FunPlex watching the (president’s) executive action press conference when I got a call from CNN,” she said of learning she would be invited to participate in the town hall meeting broadcast. Corban asked Obama about his new gun measures that require background checks on all gun sales.

Corban became an advocate for victims’ rights after she was raped in 2006 as a college student in Greeley.

She flew out to Washington D.C. to fight her most recent advocacy battle: victim access to protective firearms. She argues assaults generally lead to trauma-related mental health struggles, and the new, more intense background checks will leave gun-seeking victims in the cold.

“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?”

Obama replied nothing he has proposed makes it harder for her to buy a gun.

“Well, Kimberly, first of all, obviously — you know, your story is horrific. 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.

“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 — now, you may be referring to issues like concealed carry, but those tend to be state-by-state decisions, and we’re not making any proposals with respect to what states are doing. They can make their own decisions there.”

The attention started immediately.

“On the first commercial break, I looked down at my phone and had 141 texts,” she said.

Ever since, she’s been getting interview requests from radio shows, newspapers and television stations. Publications from the Washington Post to Cosmopolitan have written about her.

Her daughter’s first birthday was Friday, and she’s having a party with the family Saturday. Organizing it proved difficult thanks to all the interview calls.

“I was on the phone this afternoon trying to get plans to set up with my mom for my kids, and I couldn’t finish a conversation of more than two sentences with her,” she said.

This wasn’t her first rodeo.

“I have been (on national television) before,” she said, “but not in the same room as the president.”

Although she respects the office and doesn’t hold anything against Obama, she wasn’t intimidated.

“He’s exactly the same as me,” she said. “He’s just a person.”

The two did talk about kids during the breaks. He told her to wish her daughter a happy birthday for him.

“He was very respectful, and I understand our politics differ,” she said.

Corban has been a vocal victims advocate since she was sexually assaulted during her time as a University of Northern Colorado student almost 10 years ago.

Current regulations outlined in the Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibit many suffering from mental illness from buying guns. Obama’s executive order makes it easier for state and federal agencies to access mental health records for background checks.

Sexual assault victims tend to suffer mentally after the attack. Corban did.

“Within that first month, I was diagnosed with depression and (post-traumatic stress disorder),” she said. “As a direct result of my sexual assault, I had to seek counseling.”

The PTSD gave her seizures, and kept her from sleeping. She ended up having to take medication. Assault victims of all kinds, veterans and many others who suffer trauma can develop similar conditions.

“We all feel a lot of the same emotions and go down the same recovery paths, for better or for worse,” she said.

These people need to seek help, and Obama’s regulations could either spur them to avoid seeking it or punish them for doing so, she said.

“They may be depressed, but they don’t want to get that help because it may potentially impact their right … to get a firearm,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working on a rule to remove “unnecessary legal barriers” keeping state governments from reporting relevant information regarding potential gun buyers’ mental health records, according to a news release from the White House dated Jan. 4.

The same release stated many agencies continue to report little information about individuals prohibited by federal law from possessing or receiving a gun for specific mental health reasons, and highlighted that as an issue needing addressed.

Corban has been an outspoken victims’ advocate since her assault, but guns didn’t come into the discussion until 2013, when Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed three new gun-control bills into law, setting gun-rights debates ablaze nationwide.

“That’s when I really got into the issue,” she said. “I own a firearm because I know I don’t want (sexual assault) to happen to me again.”

Corban was tough from the start. When her attacker left, she kept evidence of the attack to preserve it for the police. She testified for hours in court. Despite her initial inability to discuss the horrific incident, she shed the shyness and used her experience not only to put away her own attacker, but to support other victims.

“When I speak out on this, I know that I’m always going to get backlash,” she said. “I am not a victim that fits into a nice pretty little box with a bow on top of my head.”

[real saxophonist]

Cut and pasted. Sorry about the weird symbols. Should be readable enough.

[tinyowl]

"He's exactly the same as me," she said. "He’s just a person."

"He was very respectful, and I understand our politics differ," she said.

I thought she and Kyle's wife did an amazing job at getting their point across, and when you contrast the class and well thought out and well spoken points ... and respect they showed Obama ... compared to what you hear coming from the left ... compared to Obama taking cheap shots at the NRA ... they not only won the gun control debate itself and took all the steam out of O's propaganda ... but also demonstrated for a lot of lefties watching that conservatives/re-thug-licans/those for gun rights ... are pretty much just well thought out, responsible people - the opposite of how he's been painting them.

And my overall take from the whole thing - is this weak, useless action whic divides the country ... and appearing on TV for this really what the pres of the US needs to be doing while the world is burning?

He seemed more reasonable than usual, probably because he didn't own the narrative (actually he got owned) ... but it just seemed ... stupid and small and petty ... that he'd take such small action while completely ignoring major major major threats to the US that affect not just now but entire future.

They guy is just a total loser - and I mean that not in the pure insult aspect - I mean it literally - he's lost for his lefty party (good) but he has lost so so badly for the US (very bad) - he has lost super badly for blacks ... and he's just taken a major toll on the country - he's bled it for 7 years.

I've said it before - this guy is a human black hole. An undefined non-mass that vacuums up everything good about being American, Free, Human.

Now we read that Bibi is taking steps to make sure he doesn't replace BankeyMoon as sec gen at the UN. Just. Go. Away. Please. Forever. And. Never. Come. Back.

[annieokie]

Just wondering if CC was lawful at the time Clinton abused and raped so many women, would any one of them use their weapon?

[Tupelo]

OOOOOOOOOOh!

That is a great idea for a new Twilight Zone episode.

[annieokie]

I’m thinking more of how much better off we would all be now.

[Tupelo]

Yeah, but just think what Rod Serling could do that premise.

[annieokie]

Probably. Wonder if Bill now has to go out of the states for his pleasures, knowing that many women here carry.

[mad_as_he$$]

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqnxvwOnPBU

Watch 0’s body language. He is pissed.

[GailA]

Strange no one says a word about victims like 8 year old Ashley Nichole Read. She is not a victim of a gun crime. Weapon her own shoelaces. My own 16 year old mentally delayed at (12) was beaten to death with a 2 ft section of fence post a block from home, by a sociopath for the thrill to see what it was like to kill. Bad Plea Deal, 6 parole hearings and he walks the streets of TN a free man to commit other crimes. Sociopaths can’t be ‘fixed’.

Ashley Nichole ‘Nikki’ Read (8yrs old, 67 lbs) March 16, 1990

http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/keen-david.htm

Nikki was beaten, RAPED, strangled with her own shoelaces, wrapped in a green blanket, which was then tied, by David Keen, he dumped her body into the river off the old Auction Street Boat Dock in Memphis, TN. She drowned to death. Nikki was alive as Keen RAPED her. DNA proved he did and he eventually confessed to the crime. 2 juries, up held the Death Sentence. All State and Federals Appeals are done. Yet he still sits on Tennessee Death Row because Tennessee’s RINO governor won’t sign the Death Warrant for this Child Rapist/Killer.

Nearly 26 years of waiting for justice for Nikki.

TN Governor Bill Haslam
(615) 741-2001
Bill.Haslam@tn.gov

[GailA]

There are nearly 1000 UNTESTED rape kits that sit in the evidence vault in Memphis. And the Chief of Police just resigned. Memphis did not re-elect Dem black mayor, they elected a white Dem. They spend money like crazy on stupid projects, that have noting to do with the necessary Police, Fire, Teachers, or EMT’s. Those departments are being vacated for out of state positions. Memphis is a HIGH CRIME area. Sections like Orange Mound you don’t go into even in the light of day armed. The news for the past week has had a murder or shooting a night or multiple ones.

[Spok]

Why should Obama care? Maybe she was raped by a Democrat!