On May 12, 2006, Kimberly Corban was asleep in her college bedroom when a complete stranger raped her.
She thought those was her last moments on earth, as he tried killing her soul by brutally assaulting her body. This assault, her 911 call and her decisions afterward changed the trajectory of her entire life.
Now, she believes “your greatest courage comes from your worst struggles.” She has vowed never to be vulnerable again as she has learned more about self-protection, including how to use a firearm.
With her help and courage, her rapist was caught and convicted in 2007. She has also become a role model and an inspiration to a multitude of other young people who are learning how to protect themselves.
Last week, the head-turning, entrepreneurial TurningPointUSA launched the “Trigger Warning Campus Tour,” featuring Corban talking about her story and what students can do. Her motto is “being a victim is never a choice, but becoming a survivor is.”
“I don’t carry because I worry about what could happen. I carry because I already know.”
There are no promises once citizens learn and train how to use a firearm, but the way you train or how much you know or what you choose to carry is going to be one more tool in your toolbox, Corban says. “Safety and security are multi-layered,” she says, mentioning dogs, security systems, and mace.
The Daily Caller News Foundation filmed Corban at Conservative Political Action Conference after her “Armed and Fabulous” panel. She spoke along with Kristi McMains, Katie Pavlich, Antonia Okafor and Ashlee Lundvall.
In this interview, Corban tells how she met Kristi McMains, a Louisville attorney attacked in January 2016. The two met in 2016 at the NRA annual meeting. Kristi had been so moved by Corban’s story that she began carrying a gun for self-protection only to find within weeks her life was threatened by a man with a knife. Kristi says she was alive because of Corban, who told her story and changed McMain’s life.
Corban says at the first meeting last year, they “ugly cried.” Then, at CPAC, Corban was “a proud mom” hearing McMains tell her story for the first time.
Corban says she avoids movies that glorify rape. She says, “what it’s like to have your soul murdered is never accurately depicted. I don’t seek out fictional depictions of it in movies because there’s enough of it in real life.”
For more on Kimberly Corban see her website, the NRA ad she was in and her interaction with former President Obama, who she voted for in 2008, at a CNN town hall in 2016 about gun control here or follow her on Twitter @Kimberly_Corban.
Videographer Sean Moody is credited with the video work for this piece.
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