Posted on 04/09/2008 11:43:58 AM PDT by neverdem
The student government at Virginia Tech asked protesters to demonstrate on a day besides April 16.
BLACKSBURG -- Gun-control advocates planning to protest April 16 on Virginia Tech's Drillfield said Tuesday that they hope to reach a compromise with the university that will allow them to protest without interfering with remembrance events.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, said the group has been working with Tech students on the protest. It would involve a 32-person "lie-in" at noon April 16, the one-year anniversary of campus shootings that left 32 people dead plus the shooter.
The Brady Campaign sent out a media advisory Thursday announcing the event, planned in conjunction with the gun-control group ProtestEasyGuns.com. Hamm said Tuesday that the gun-control groups had not discussed the event with the university.
Hamm was initially discouraged by what he saw as a hard-line stance by the university against issuing a permit and said Tuesday morning that the event would go ahead as scheduled -- permit or no permit.
But by Tuesday afternoon, he said he was optimistic that Tech students involved in the protest would be able to reach a compromise with the administration. He said the goal of the protesters was never to interfere with the commemoration ceremonies.
"If the parties talk to each other, I think these issues are fully resolvable," he said.
Hamm said the university and the Brady Campaign traded phone calls Tuesday afternoon and he was trying to facilitate discussion between students and the university.
To demonstrate on campus, protesters need to apply for an assembly permit. Tech doesn't allow groups not affiliated with the university to assemble on campus. Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Tuesday that no one had applied for a permit for April 16, when the university will hold a day of remembrance to honor the shooting victims.
Hincker wouldn't rule out the possibility of the university giving a permit to a student group to assemble somewhere on campus April 16, but he said events are already planned for the Drillfield that morning and evening and the university doesn't want anything to interrupt the "solemnity" of the day.
Hincker said the gun-control issue is an important one, and the university understands the rights of people to express themselves. But he said April 16 is a time for the community to heal and reflect on the lives of people lost a year ago.
"April 16 is, to us, truly a solemn day," he said. "It's a day of remembrance."
Hamm said Tech students organizing the protest have not applied for a permit, but he expected the two sides to have "constructive conversations that will hopefully lead to an amicable resolution."
He would not say who the student organizers are because they've asked the national group to deal with reporters.
But Hamm said decisions on how the protest would be carried out would be determined by the students, not the Brady Campaign or ProtestEasyGuns.com.
"It's not for us to say what's an acceptable resolution," Hamm said. "It's their protest."
Abigail Spangler, founder of ProtestEasyGuns.com began organizing similar lie-in protests after last year's tragedy and has dubbed April 16 National Lie-In Day, with more than 50 events planned around the country.
The group has protested in various spots in Virginia and held a lie-in outside the Capitol in Richmond in January as legislators considered a bill to close the state's so-called "gun show loophole." The legislation, which would've required private sellers to conduct the same criminal background checks on buyers that licensed dealers must perform, was defeated.
Hamm said the lie-ins are quiet, short and peaceful. The protest would take place after the university commemoration events on the Drillfield that morning.
"I don't think anyone should see a lie-in as a cause for alarm," Hamm said.
Scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., the commemoration events will involve the reading of names of the victims and short tributes to each of them. Gov. Tim Kaine, a supporter of bills to close the gun show loophole, will be there.
Some students have expressed concern about protesters on campus April 16.
Tech's Student Government Association passed a resolution Tuesday night asking protesters "to respect the Virginia Tech community's wish to peacefully embrace the university day of remembrance by holding their demonstrations on a different date."
Sophomore Alyson Boyce, one of the sponsors of the resolution, said it isn't meant to discourage protests in general.
"We just want April 16 to be a day to honor our friends," she said.
The original story linked it three times. Know Thine Enemy.
I didn’t read the whole story, but this thought came to me from the title.
Pro Self Defense groups should stage a “massacre” for all of the unarmed people who are just laying around. Bring a bunch of water pistols and show them how vulnerable they are.
p.s. I am not advocating this action. It was just a thought. We can still have independent thoughts right???
Well, I don't think anyone should see concealed carry as a cause for alarm, pinhead.
They lie so well.
Hey Peter Hamm! You and your filthy pigs just stay the hell away. Your very existence “interfer[es] with remembrance events.”
9/11 was an inside job... under sniper fire in Bosnia... with my wife, ah...Morgan Fairchild... I actually voted for it before I voted against it....
I thought the same thing.
Seriously though, why do these “advocicy” groups have to ruin days of rememberance to push their propogandist, leftist, control oriented garbage? Guess they don’t have any respect for the souls lost, and only thing about furthering the movement. What a bunch of dingbats, and that’s NOT what I want to say!
Perhaps there should be some people dressed up as the Nazi SS taking fake guns from these “die in” people as the show up to die, proclaiming it’s for the publics saftey, give them all a yellow patch to wear on their arm. Then when their shooter shows up they might get it.
Maybe after they’re done, they can hop a plane and do another lie-in in the streets of Sadr City. Survivors can then do their next anti-gun protest at Darfur.
Well it does seem that a “LIE-in” is always the appropriate option for the dishonest demagogues of the left......
Liberals, even when you grieve your dead, it’s all about them.
Pro-first ammendment people should show up and “save” the wounded. Pick them up and carry them to safety. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a gun.”
I think paint-ball guns would be more appropriate than water pistols.
“Seriously though, why do these “advocicy” groups have to ruin days of rememberance to push their propogandist, leftist, control oriented garbage?”
Especially when, ironically, their control oriented garbage may have cost many lives in this particular tragedy.
Here's an idea Abigail: why don't you and your chicken**** friends walk into the bad neighborhoods of major cities looking for illegal ("easy") guns?
I want the Hokies to know that a water balloon slingshot can launch a piss balloon with satisfactory accuracy from a distance greater than anyone in the impact zone can determine where the missile originated.
Larry Hincker obviously doesn't understand the right of people to defend themselves. Putz.
They should be met with an empty holster protest.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before, even here! :-O
In WWII, SS officer `Panzer’ Meyer once used an unusal method of getting some troops to move.
They were bracketed and wouldn’t budge. He pulled the pin on a grenade & set it down next to them, then showed them the way. They followed quickly.
Lay some tear gas canisters next to these pin-heads and they’ll move too.
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