College students across America have been strapping on empty gun holsters this week to protest laws and policies prohibiting licensed concealed carry on college campuses.
The week-long protests are sponsored by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, or SCCC, a grass-roots organization of more than 44,000 college students, faculty members and citizens who support the right to self-defense on campus. The group has members in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The group formed shortly after the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, in which a gunman brutally murdered 32 students and faculty members and injured 17 more before killing himself.
"Recent high-profile shootings and armed abductions on college campuses clearly demonstrate that 'gun-free zones' serve to disarm only those law-abiding citizens who might otherwise be able to protect themselves," the SCCC website states.
SCCC lists 24 states that expressly prohibit concealed carry on college campuses by those with valid concealed handgun licenses and permits: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming. Texas specifically prohibits concealed firearms on campus but allows individual colleges to "opt out" of the law.
An additional 15 states "right-to-carry" states – Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia – let colleges decide whether to allow concealed carry on campus. Licensed individuals who are caught with firearms on campus may not be held criminally liable, but they may be expelled or fired by the colleges.
According to the group, colleges have not only discriminated against concealed carry permit holders, they often censor students who disagree by ignoring or attempting to stop students from discussing the issue of concealed carry.
SCCC member Christine Brashier reported being banned from handing out fliers about the group by a Pennsylvania college that purportedly told her, "You may want to discuss this topic but the college does not, and you cannot make us."
"Colleges aren't content to ban the right of self-defense anymore," said SCCC spokesman David Burnett. "Now they're trying to suspend the right to freedom of speech. They want to silence us and hope we'll go away. It's outrageous and our membership cares too much about self-defense to remain silent."
No comments:
Post a Comment