About Time

[GoodOlBoy]

Students Strap On Empty Holsters to Protest Gun Restrictions on Campus
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

By Melissa Underwood

Oct. 22: Ohio State University student Evan Peck, from Strongsville, Ohio, wears an empty holster on his hip.
College students across the country have been strapping empty holsters around their waists this week to protest laws that prohibit concealed weapons on campus, citing concerns over campus shootings.

"People who would otherwise be able to defend themselves are left defenseless when on campus," said Ethan Bratt, a graduate student wearing an empty holster this week on the campus of Seattle Pacific University.

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a group of college students, parents and citizens who organized after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University in April, launched the protest.

A national debate over gun laws on campus began in the wake of those shootings, in which a deranged student killed 32 people in a classroom building before committing suicide. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Campuses are prime targets for people intent on harming others because laws prohibit concealed weapons there, Bratt said.

But others believe college is no place for firearms.

"You don't like the fact that you can't have a gun on your college campus? Drop out of school," said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

When someone pulls out a gun and starts firing in a crowded environment, it's more likely that additional victims will be harmed, Hamm said.

"Let's be grateful that those holsters are empty," he said.

A group of 12 students chose to wear empty holsters to class this week at the University of Idaho as part of the nationwide protest.

Aled Baker, a junior, said he loses his constitutional right to protect himself and others when he steps on campus.

"It's null and void when you go on campus," the mechanical engineering student said.

Baker, a sportsman and hunter, has a license to carry a concealed handgun and hopes the protest will get people talking about the issue.

Many universities, like George Washington University, prohibit carrying concealed handguns on campuses.

"We do not allow weapons on campus for the safety and security of our student body and faculty," said Tracy Schario, spokeswoman for George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Justin Turner, a senior in criminology and history at Florida State University, also wants the ability to carry a concealed handgun on campus.

"I'm hoping that people actually realize that this is something that college students are serious about moving forward and realize that it's not about taking the law into your own hands; it's about taking personal responsibility for yourself," said Turner, chairman of the Florida State chapter of Students for the Second Amendment.

Congress is considering legislation that would tighten background checks and give states funding to submit information to a national database that would prevent guns from being sold to dangerous buyers. House lawmakers passed the legislation, but it remains in the Senate.

"It fixes the problem that the states are not submitting the necessary records of people who have been found by a court to be dangerously mentally ill," Hamm said.

Family members and survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings recently visited members of Congress to urge lawmakers to pass the legislation they believe could help prevent future tragedies.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304806,00.html

GoodOlBoy

[GoodOlBoy]

10/22/2007 – THE EMPTY HOLSTER PROTEST BEGINS!

The Empty Holster Protest

During the week of October 22-26, participating students and faculty at over 110 colleges and universities throughout America will wear empty holsters on campus, in protest of state laws and school policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else (movie theaters, office buildings, shopping malls, etc).

The symbolic point of the Empty Holster Protest is to represent that students, faculty, and guests on college campuses are left defenseless (with nothing but empty holsters) by state laws and school policies that refuse to afford concealed handgun license holders the same rights on college campuses that they are afforded virtually everywhere else.

The practical point of the Empty Holster Protest is to encourage a dialogue between protesters and individuals who may not know the facts of concealed carry.

The Official Empty Holster Protest Press Release

Answers to the Most Common Arguments Against Concealed Carry on College Campuses

PROTEST GUIDELINES:

1. Do not carry ANYTHING in your holster. Some members have suggested the idea of carrying cell phones or other personal items in their holsters, as a way of showing that the holsters themselves are harmless; however, SCCC strongly discourages against doing so. Aside from the fact that a casual observer’s overactive imagination might lead him or her to believe that the item in your holster is actually a gun, carrying something in your holster detracts from the protest’s statement. The point of wearing EMPTY holsters is symbolic, so please don’t confuse the issue by placing anything in your holster.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER SHOULD YOU, AT ANY TIME, PLACE ANYTHING IN YOUR HOLSTER THAT LOOKS EVEN REMOTELY LIKE A FIREARM!

2. If your holster has a top flap designed to cover a pistol, please find a way to pin or tie that flap open so that it is readily apparent that your holster is empty.

3. As long as you’re wearing a holster and/or a ConcealedCampus.com T-shirt, leave your temper at home. Part of the price for standing up for your beliefs is facing ridicule from those who disagree. Remain calm at all times. Act dignified and professional at all times. No matter what anyone says to you, be the bigger person.

4. If, at anytime during the protest, a member of the opposition “crosses the line,” notify the appropriate authorities immediately. Though facing ridicule is part of the price for standing up for your beliefs, giving up your basic human rights is not part of that price. If anyone threatens you with any illegal action (violent or non-violent), IMMEDIATELY notify campus or local police. If a professor suggests that your participation in the protest may somehow negatively affect your grade in his or her class, notify your school administration.

5. No protester should, under any circumstances, wear a holster onto the campus of any high school, junior high, middle school, or elementary school. This protest is about concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses. The agenda of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus does not encompass similar issues affecting primary and secondary schools.

6. Use your best judgment at all times. The organizers of this protest cannot foresee every possible scenario. If you encounter a situation for which you are not prepared, think through it, and use your best judgment.

http://concealedcampus.org/index.htm

Looks like at least SOME college students have a good head on their shoulders.

GoodOlBoy

[Adam Helmer]

GOB,

Excellent thread! A license to carry is a license to carry. Virginia Tech shows that campus security/police are inadequate to protect the students.

One more thing, as Columbo would say, I would ask that Peter Hamm from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence WHY his organization and Virginia Tech DID NOT keep the Virginia Tech shooter's guns OFF CAMPUS?

Adam