Free Republic

As they have publicized nowhere, the ASUA Senate will vote today on a resolution condemning bills in the Arizona legislature that will disallow private citizens from exercising their right to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. This is a long and storied sage with ASUA — read this site’s reports on the matter from 2009, 2010, and 2011, just as a selection. The resolution (here as a pdf with today’s meeting agenda) is hardly different than resolutions other ASUA Senates have passed on the matter, but this round of bullets against personal property rights is noteworthy for a few reasons....

Guns and coffee collided Tuesday outside as Ohio State students from the group Buckeyes for Concealed Carry on Campus spent part of their Valentine's Day advocating for the right to carry a weapon on campus. The group protested outside Starbucks on 14th Avenue and High Street in a response to a nationwide boycott against Starbucks for its neutral position on concealed carry. The National Gun Victim's Action Council called for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks on Valentine's Day until the corporation prohibits guns in the stores. Michael Newbern, a second-year in industrial engineering and president of Buckeyes for Concealed Carry...

Firearms may soon be allowed on Arizona college campuses if Senate Bill 1474 is passed. This past April, Gov. Brewer vetoed the bill, which was then SB 1467. In her veto letter, she said the bill was too ambiguous in stating its key concepts of where weapons can be carried and how K-12 schools will be affected. “Bills impacting our Second Amendment rights have to be crystal clear so that gun owners don’t become lawbreakers by accident,” Brewer said. The bill has been modified to correct the areas in which Brewer said were too vague, in hopes of being passed...

While participating in highway clean ups, the Student for Concealed Carry on Campus chapter seems like the average club doing community service at first glance. These students take safety precautions to a different level though. Along with the reflective vests and garden gloves, these students carry pistols in holsters while serving their community. "We get a pretty good amount of horn beeps and ‘woo-hoos' and stuff while we're out there," Clark Lynn said. Lynn is a senior in psychology and president of the N.C. State chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. A club's mission As part of a...

Monday, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 1474 by a 5 to 3 vote. This bill, sponsored by state Senator Ron Gould (R-3), is right-to-carry reform legislation which would enable law-abiding citizens to defend themselves while on the grounds of higher education campuses. SB 1474 will now be sent to the Senate floor for a vote. Please call AND e-mail your state Senator and encourage him or her to support this important personal protection legislation! SB 1474 would prohibit a public university, college, or community college from adopting or enforcing any policy prohibiting the lawful carry of a...

In 1991, University of Iowa student Gang Lu shot five university employees. In 1996, San Diego State University student Frederick Martin Davidson killed three professors. However, the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre is the most memorable shooting on a college campus, as it left 32 innocent students dead after they were picked off by a crazed gunman. On Dec. 8, 2011, another shooting occurred on the Virginia Tech campus, leaving a police officer dead. Apparently the school’s ban on guns failed yet again, considering that the perpetrator of this incident did not obey it. But how many people actually believe that...

PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona lawmakers Monday advanced a pair of gun-rights bills that would expand where firearms could be carried, including a proposal allowing concealed weapons on university campuses, touching off pointed criticism from groups as divergent students and law enforcement officials. A bill introduced by Republican state Sen. Ron Gould of Lake Havasu City allows people with necessary permits to carry concealed guns on campus grounds and prevents public universities and community colleges from restricting that privilege.

UA President Eugene Sander publicly declared his opposition to guns on campus on Thursday, as well as discussed his recent meetings with state legislators regarding the College of Medicine and the university’s budget during his fourth town hall-style meeting. Sander began the meeting by explaining some of the proposed legislation that would allow guns on campus, saying that because the UA is an academic hub that houses scholars, athletes, professors and children, having guns on campus would be neither smart nor safe. “I believe in the Second Amendment and I even own a host of guns, however this does not...

BERKELEY -- Why in the world does the University of California employ an armed police force on its campuses? That question, and the anger implied in its wording, was asked repeatedly Wednesday night by UC Berkeley students and faculty of top UC brass. Berkeley was a whistlestop on their tour of campuses before they prepare UC's official response to the use of batons and pepper-spray against peaceful protesters last November. ... Everyone sat in concentric circles waiting for the chance to influence recommendations being prepared on behalf of the university system by Charles Robinson, UC's general counsel, and Chris Edley,...

Hoping to avoid another veto, a state lawmaker on Monday revamped his proposal to let faculty and students carry guns onto college and university campuses. The legislation by Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, would limit the ability to be armed to those who have a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon. Last year's vetoed bill had no such limit. And Gould would permit schools to declare specific buildings and classrooms to be gun-free zones. But that would first require colleges and universities to not only post "no gun" notices but furnish lockers where those who brought their guns...

I'm a rare Republican. I really don't like guns. I have a problem with tools that have such a strong intent and prevalence of violence. I can only think of one constructive thing to do with a gun, and that's practice your aim. But what help is being able to shoot a gun well unless you're shooting a gun? It doesn't seem to me to have any outside practical purposes where other tools that could be used destructively do. Take a hammer, for example. You could probably kill someone with it, but you can also build all sorts of things....

A bill in the Kansas House of Federal and State Affairs Committee would allow concealed carry permit holders to bring firearms onto college and university campuses. The committee heard testimony Wednesday and Thursday on House Bill 2353, introduced by Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona. Under the current law, public and private buildings may prohibit entry of permit holders’ firearms with signs posted at every entrance, which the University currently does. According to the new bill, public places would not be able to prohibit firearms by licensed carriers unless it had “adequate security measures,” including security guards and metal detectors at all...

STILLWATER - It looked like a regular class. Students took notes while the instructor talked about the points listed on a screen behind him. But this Friday evening session on the Oklahoma State University campus didn't count toward a college degree. This class was for a license to carry a concealed firearm. Forty-two people - students, faculty members and Stillwater residents - registered for the session, a first for the university. The group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus hosted the class, with certified instructors from the Stillwater Armory, a gun store, range and training center, leading the course. Weapons...

Before I say anything else, let me make it clear: any liberal (or person) who calls himself an American should believe in the Constitution. I see, too often, in blogs and on television people who selectively promote their favorite parts of our governing document. Conservatives seem as if they want to tattoo the 10th Amendment (states’ rights) on their chest, but often questionably cut corners around the Fourth Amendment (protection against unwarranted searches) for the sake of “national security.” Liberals talk endlessly of First Amendment rights to free speech, while trying to ignore the Second Amendment. I try not to...

Imagine eating at Burger King in the University Center West when a student walks through the doors with a gun holstered on his hip. Heads would turn, mouths would drop and some students would run in the opposite direction. But such a sight would not be uncommon under proposed Indiana Senate Bill No. 0181. The bill was authored by Sen. Jim Banks and Sen. Dennis Kruse, both of representatives of Indiana's northeast districts. If passed, the bill would allow anyone with a valid license to openly carry a loaded firearm on state property, including a college campus. The bill was...

The poll is on the right side of the screen, half way down. It is rather ambiguously worded, as it makes no differenciation between legal or illegal. However, the Second Amendment is pretty clear.

To the editor: The Firearms Omnibus Bill would make Arizona the second state in the nation to require universities and communities to allow guns on campus and inside government buildings. I suppose the rationale behind this Firearms Omnibus is to make nonviolent individuals safer by carrying weapons by which to respond to life-threatening situations. The Second Amendment does not specify "guns." It simply states the right "to keep and bear Arms." Guns are one type of "arms," but not the only one. Guns can decommission a lot of bad guys quickly, but there are other self-defense weapons that work well...

Shots will fly as five members of UT's College Republicans attend a concealed weapons course this weekend. This day-long seminar will begin with a lecture explaining how to legally conceal and carry a firearm. The students will then demonstrate their shooting abilities with live ammunition at a shooting range. If their aim is accurate, participants who are 21 years old and up will be licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Ohio. This is the second time the College Republicans will have the opportunity to learn about carrying a concealed firearm. Scott Mazzola, Doug Dettert, Drew Ashcraft, Patrick Richardson and...

“For Bob McDonnell, VP Talk Won’t Go Away,” a November Roll Call headline declares. “GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney…may choose Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell…as his running mate if he secures the nomination next year,” the accompanying photo caption reads. But why settle for Number Two? There’s a “Draft McConnell” website (the site owner behind the move is masked by proxy domain registration) claiming: We Don't Have to Settle A recent report by Rhodes Cook, Senior Columnist at the Center for Politics, shows that it's not too late for a Republican to enter the 2012 Presidential race. Bob McDonnell has a...

I am a 19-year-old college student at the University of New Hampshire, and my constitutional rights are not open for debate. Specifically, the Second Amendment mandates that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” HB 334 has opened up a debate over whether college students should be allowed to carry guns on campus. We often hear that college students aren’t responsible enough to be trusted with guns. If college students cannot be trusted with guns, why can we be conscripted in the military? If we cannot be trusted with guns, why can we...

PHOENIX - Arizona Sen. Ronald Gould plans to reintroduce a gun bill next week that would force public colleges and universities to allow students with gun permits to carry firearms on campus. Gould (R- District 3) introduced a similar bill last legislative session which Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed. "The new bill only pertains to concealed carry permit holders," Gould said. Gould feels allowing students to carry weapons will decrease crime on campus. "To disallow guns on campus, what that really does is create a self defense free zone. So people with evil intents, they know there's no weapons there,"...

Gov. John Lynch and police and education officials are calling on lawmakers to reject three proposed bills that would loosen gun laws on university campuses and elsewhere. One bill would take away the right of college officials to ban guns on campus, another would let residents carry weapons - openly or concealed, loaded or empty - without a permit, and the third would permit loaded rifles and shotguns to be carried in vehicles. Lynch and the others will protest the legislation at a press conference tomorrow, a day before lawmakers reconvene for the 2012 legislative session. Lynch's spokesman, Colin Manning,...

Arizona state legislators have redrafted legislation that would allow guns on college campuses, despite Governor Jan Brewer's vetoing of a similar bill earlier this year. The new bill is just a modified version of the old bill, which Brewer felt was too vague. However, after vetoing it, the governor said she supports "the thoughtful expansion of where firearms should be allowed." "The actual legislation that does so must be both unambiguous and clear to protect the Second Amendment rights of lawful gun owners. Senate Bill 1467 [last year's bill to allow guns on campus] is neither," she explained at the...

Too many discussions about gun policy quickly devolve into overheated exchanges where the participants invoke competing dystopian world views. These nightmare scenarios involve either heavily armored government agents breaking down citizens' doors and seizing any trace of personally owned firearms — including beloved family-heirloom, muzzle-loaded fowling pieces — or an unruly nation of malevolent inner-city buckaroos indiscriminately squeezing off potentially lethal rounds on school playgrounds, crowded shopping malls or busy streets. At the nonprofit, nonpartisan Live Free or Die Alliance, however, we asked our Facebook followers to comment on a pair of recent gun-related questions: one involving an attempt to...

I never really liked Ali Velshi, specifically because he never allows anyone to finish their point before jumping in with another question or trying to throw them off. But Philip seems to hold his own and come off as a well spoken and intelligent person with a valid opinion. The interview comes on the heels of the VCDL’s protests across campuses in the Commonwealth to raise awareness for campus carry efforts and in the wake of a murder suicide at Virginia Tech involving a law enforcement officer who was killed in the line of duty. One thing is for sure...

Another school shooting at Virginia Tech and more calls for gun control everywhere. Calling for more of what doesn’t work betrays an underlying stubbornness which is incompatible with student safety. By now, America is realizing a few things about gun control in general. It doesn’t work on criminals. It does work to grow chaos and tragedy for political purposes, that part that is becoming increasingly evident. Gun control is the perfect example of lip service assurances proving to be absolutely counter to unbearable results. Gun control works at cross purposes to the interests of citizens, including adult college students. Like...

ovington VA --(Ammoland.com)- The Radford University protest on Wednesday was a success, even if the weather didn’t really cooperate. Despite the rain and the fact that we could not hand out our brochures and stickers unsolicited, we still handed out 500 brochures and even more stickers. Eryn Bartholomew (Vice-President of the Radford College Republicans), VCDL EM Dave Knight, and I spoke at the event. We met with the police and student event staff early so they could go over the rules with us for our protest. We also paid for our tables, which we were required to stay near during...

Plymouth State University Warns Students PLYMOUTH, N.H. -- Two activists plan to walk on the campus of Plymouth State University on Friday with guns, arguing against a school policy that prohibits guns on campus. They call the university rule illegal. “Law-abiding taxpayers of this state, who have children that go to a university system New Hampshire campus, shouldn't have to disarm themselves for self-defense purposes because of an illegally instituted rule,” said one of the activists, Brad Jardis, a former police officer. Jardis and Tommy Mozingo plan to bring unloaded guns to the school early Friday morning. The university doesn’t...

Sen. Jim Banks: Students Should Be Allowed To Protect Themselves INDIANAPOLIS -- College students could soon be able to carry guns on public campuses in Indiana. Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Columbia City has introduced legislation that would allow licensed gun owners to have firearms on campus. The law has the potential to impact hundreds of thousands of students and staff at public universities, including Indiana University, Purdue University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Ivy Tech, Indiana State University, Ball State University, Vincennes University and the University of Southern Indiana. The legislation would not apply to private colleges and universities. Banks...

BLACKSBURG, Va. – DEVELOPING: Two people, including a police officer, were gunned down on Virginia Tech's campus on Thursday, according to the university. A Virginia Tech police officer was shot shortly after noon during a traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall, a gymnasium on the 2,600-acre campus. The unidentified officer later died. Witnesses reported to police that the shooter fled on foot toward a parking lot, where a second unidentified victim was found dead. The whereabouts of the gunman remains unknown. The suspect, according to an earlier posting on the school's website, is described as a...

The battle for guns on the campus of Georgia Tech is on -- one group is teaming up with a national organization to convince officials to allow them to carry guns at the school. "We just had a robbery last night," Andrés Celedón, chairman of the Georgia Tech College Republicans, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's just really allowing kids a way to defend themselves." Celedón said his group is joining forces with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus in its effort to repeal the law that prohibits guns at all colleges in Georgia. State lawmakers regularly uphold the ban, and...

The N.H. House of Representatives will vote on a new bill in January that, if passed, will allow firearms to be carried on college campuses. Currently, the majority of the N.H. House is in support of bill HB-0334, which, if put into effect, would give the state sole authority over gun regulations, meaning that universities in the state would no longer have the power to ban firearms from their campuses. The new bill would mean that guns would be allowed anywhere on campus, including dorms and classrooms. Similar bills have been put into effect in other states, including Utah, Colorado,...

Due to recent crimes and awareness on campus, some students are feeling the need to pursue a concealed carry license. A concealed carry permit gives people the ability to legally carry a handgun or another weapon in a concealed manner, on their person, or near their proximity. A new group, Buckeyes for Concealed Carry on Campus, is advocating restoring the right to carry a concealed weapon on university property to individuals who already have a license. The founder of the group Michael Newbern, a second-year in mechanical engineering, said the group is specifically looking to restore those rights to individuals...

In a widely circulated complaint last March, House Speaker William O’Brien said that college students were intellectually and emotionally deficient, at least so far as voting was concerned; they allegedly lacked the maturity to grasp the substance of important things. The speaker’s point was partisan, in that at the time he was trying to beef up residency requirements for people whom he said tended to vote liberal. Doing such “foolish” things, he remarked, was “what kids do.” We disagree with O’Brien’s particular complaint, and also his tactic to restrict voting rights (the effort is part of a nationwide right-wing campaign)...

I do not believe that students should be allowed to carry loaded firearms with them to class. Allowing concealed weapons on campus aims to fix a problem that doesn't exist, and will most certainly create new problems if it were ever to be implemented. Beside the fact that allowing students to carry guns around is both unnecessary and limitlessly dangerous, it is also not constitutionally viable. Vigilantes are by nature unjust because they don't provide their victims with a fair and just trial, as is dictated by our nation's laws. You can expect nothing more than a "shoot first, ask...

<p>College tuition is a big challenge for most of us, but guns can help pay the freight. So can badminton, martial arts, bowling, barrel racing, and other rodeo and equestrian sports. Scholarship money for all of those college sports is available in a vast number of places, including the schools themselves. Visit collegescholarships.org for a flight of fancy and finance.</p>

Rising tuition, 'Occupy' spark new campus activismBy LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune Published: November 27, 2011 TAMPA - Dani Leppo planned to keep her head down, study and finish as fast as possible when she transferred from St. Petersburg College to the University of South Florida this year. But as she crossed campus one day, she saw a group of people holding signs saying tuition was going up 15 percent. An activist was born. "We can barely pay our bills," Leppo said, "and here they are raising tuition." USF government professor Harry Vanden sees the anger rising on campuses...

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) was certain Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had sold them out. “His opinion on the GMU ban went against us,” said VCDL Vice President Jim Snyder in his introduction of Cuccinelli at Thursday night’s membership meeting in the Mason Governmental Center. Cuccinelli soon allayed the group’s fears: “As Attorney General I cannot undercut my client by going out and saying something like, ‘You’re idiots for doing this.’ But the case is over, and I can now say I think they’re crazy.” In January 2011, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld George Mason University's prohibition against guns...

Lawmakers in New Hampshire will vote in January whether to continue to allow colleges in the state to ban guns on campus. Well, one Republican legislator is going public with his stance -- guns do indeed belong in schools. Weapons are currently banned on all campuses of the University System of New Hampshire, and the system would like to keep the right to regulate such matters but lawmakers may take that decision away. The Associated Press reports that in an email to university officials and his fellow legislators, Rep. Mark Proulx said banning guns is a fatal mistake: "For people...

Penn State powerless to keep Sandusky off campusErnest Scheyder Reuters 12:19 p.m. CST, November 16, 2011 STATE COLLEGE (Reuters) - Penn State says alleged child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky is "not welcome" on its campus, but the university so far has no legal recourse to keep the former assistant football coach away. In her bail ruling, Judge Leslie Dutchot ordered the former defensive coordinator not to have any contact with minors, witnesses or alleged victims. The ruling placed no restrictions on his travel. Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, advised Sandusky and his wife to take a trip ahead of the next...

For the thousands of Buckeyes on OSU campus at all times, the threat of crime may be the last thing on their minds. Finals week, Thanksgiving break and scheduling classes approach in the distance as fall quarter rapidly draws to an end. But should it be the last thing on their minds? OSU student and engineering major Mike Newbern doesn’t think so. “There have been four incidents in the last two weeks within three blocks of campus,” he said. “The important thing to understand is that bad guys are not going to stop getting guns, which is why it’s important...

A Massachusetts law professor has created a campus firestorm with an email to colleagues that declares it would be “shameful” to send care packages to U.S. troops “who have gone overseas to kill other human beings.”

The Board of Visitors approved a regulation Friday banning firearms on Grounds, at the University Medical Center and at the College at Wise. The regulation is consistent with an already existing University policy prohibiting weapons, fireworks and explosives on University property. The decision comes after Virginia Attorney General and University alumnus Ken Cuccinelli opined in July that the University’s “policy” banning weapons could not apply to those with concealed weapons permits. In the opinion, Cuccinelli acknowledged that a similar regulation at George Mason University carries the force of law with regard to concealed weapons. “Regulations” undergo a more formal process...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Police in North Carolina were investigating Sunday after two students were robbed by several gunmen in a dorm room at Fayetteville State University. WRAL-TV reported four to six men with guns knocked on a dorm room door at around 2:00am local time, university spokesman Jeff Womble said. When the two students answered, a physical altercation ensued. Shots were fired, damaging some furniture in the room, but no one was struck. The two students were injured during the altercation, Womble said. One of the students was taken to a local hospital in unknown condition, and the other was...

‘Of course we’re going to riot,” Paul Howard, a 24-year-old aerospace-engineering student at Penn State University, told the New York Times. “What do they expect when they tell us at 10 o’clock that they fired our football coach?” The coach in question, as we all know, is Joe Paterno, the decades-long patriarch of Penn State football. Paterno was fired by the board of trustees for his part in a reprehensible non-response to the alleged rape of a ten-year-old boy in the locker-room showers. You have to wonder what’s wrong with our society when someone can say, “Of course we’re going...

BERKELEY COUNTY, W. VA - On the same day felony charges against a student who allegedly carried a gun onto campus were dropped, new misdemeanor charges were filed. On Tuesday, Joshua Beck, who holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon, faced two felony charges and a maximum sentence of 20 years for allegedly carrying his handgun on the campus of Blue Ridge Community and Technical College. On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped those charges, but then filed two misdemeanor charges. "These new charges are just simply a stretch, and now the Prosecutor's office has resorted to dredging the bottom of the...

Virginia Tech was the site of one of the bloodiest school shootings in the history of the United States. On that day a single gunman killed 33 people and injured 25 more before he took his own life. Many of us on this site believe the vast majority of those deaths could have been prevented by a single legally armed citizen and their firearm, but thanks to gun-free school laws and policies every victim was unarmed and defenseless. The Virginia Civil Defense League, Virginia’s firearms owner rights protection group, just announced their plans to hold a protest on November 17th...

I am pleased to be able to report that yesterday, the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney's office dismissed both charges of carrying a firearm on school property that were filed over the last couple of weeks against Joshua Beck. Mr. Beck, as you will recall, is a 26-year-old student at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College in Martinsburg who was arrested on October 13 and again on October 17 on two separate felony charges under W.Va. Code § 61-7-11a(b). Subsequent to Mr. Beck's arrest and WVCDL's initial report about his case, Mr. Beck contacted me and I agreed to represent him...

Blue Ridge Community and Technical College student disputes illegally taking gun onto campus MARTINSBURG - Individuals at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College have an anti-gun agenda, says a man arrested last week for toting a gun on campus. Joshua Lee Beck says BRCTC is trying to paint him as a bad guy. "They're only pressing this after they found out what I did for a living," Beck told The Journal Tuesday. "Their treatment of me is outrageous and unlawful. I find the allegations slanderous, outrageous and insulting." Beck, 26, of Martinsburg, has been arrested and charged twice for allegedly...

MARTINSBURG - A Martinsburg man arrested last week for allegedly carrying a concealed firearm onto the campus of Blue Ridge Community and Technical College was arrested again Monday without incident at the school on a second felony warrant in connection with a separate, firearm-related incident. The warrant issued Monday charges 26-year-old Joshua L. Beck, of Teal Road, with possession of a deadly weapon on the premises of an educational facility. Beck's arrest Monday stems from an incident on Oct. 10 when he allegedly brought a firearm into the college. According to school officials, Beck had been warned several times not...