Posted on 06/12/2012 10:45:32 AM PDT by marktwain
Douglas County prosecutors are still reviewing whether to file charges against a 22-year-old Kansas University student who was accused of possessing a gun inside his scholarship hall room in April.
A Lawrence attorney says the case illustrates constitutional questions because a student’s campus dorm room is considered a student’s home, where the Supreme Court has ruled it’s a fundamental right for residents to possess firearms for protection under the Second Amendment.
“It’s an area of the law that is newly developing because of Supreme Court cases,” said defense attorney Carl Folsom, who is not involved in the case. “It seems like there’s not a lot of issues in Kansas at the state level.”
Gun control advocates say the law is clear, however, and that the courts have supported banning guns at government buildings, including universities.
“Schools are sensitive places,” said Daniel Vice, senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “The Supreme Court specifically said you can prohibit guns there.”
In the KU case, police said they were called to Battenfeld Scholarship hall, 1425 Alumni Place, by the hall director, who said she had received numerous reports that a resident had a gun in his room. Officers later made contact with the man and recovered a gun.
Folsom said the issue is interesting because many cases have established a student’s room at college is like his or her home, and in the landmark 2008 Heller case the Supreme Court ruled the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to possess firearms for lawful purposes, including self-defense in the home. He also said he didn’t believe past challenges had yet covered the dorm room question.
But Vice said courts have found restrictions on guns at schools are presumptively lawful under the Second Amendment.
“You can see why. You have kids who are just going out on their own. There are drugs and drinking and lots of young people in confined spaces,” he said. “Having loaded guns there would be especially dangerous.”
Vice said nationally he’s heard that law enforcement officials oppose the argument in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed and 17 were wounded, that allowing guns on campuses would help guard against campus shooters.
Folsom said a university policy against having guns in campus buildings, including in a student’s room, would be more likely to be fine. It gets more interesting, he said, if gun possession is a crime and not simply the breaking of a university rule because of past and potentially future rulings.
“My issue is when you make it a crime to do that, I would say it would probably be unconstitutional under the Heller case,” Folsom said, “but that it would be a close call for the court.”
Wisconsin solved this problem in their legislation last year by specifically removing from the state universities and colledges the ability to prohibit firearms from places where someone was paying them to lease or rent.
“A Lawrence attorney says the case illustrates constitutional questions because a student’s campus dorm room is considered a student’s home,”
the only question here is how to get the anti-gun University’s panties straightened out.
Quite a few students had rifles with them when I was in college especially during hunting season. One of the funnier episodes was when a younger student was handed a .357 by others getting ready to shoot whiskey bottles filled with colored water off a mantle. They gave him the first shot. He thought he was going to fire a pellet gun. I don’t think he crapped his pants, but he was definitely surprised.
The .357 was also used one night to quiet one of the residents who was making too much noise. He didn’t get shot but the pile of splinters from the ceiling landed on his head. He STFU and went to the TV room.
“Douglas County prosecutors are still reviewing whether to file charges against a 22-year-old Kansas University student who was accused of possessing a gun inside his scholarship hall room in April.”
This is why every county in America needs to elect a constitutional sheriff who believes in the 2nd amendment.
This sheriff can make it clear to the county prosecutor fascist runt that in a traffic stop, his car trunk will be filled with 20 lbs. of cocaine or boxes of child porn.
It’s way past time to stop playing paddy-cake with these nazis who want to destroy our families, communities and country.
OK, but a university isn't a "school" in that sense. First of all, people live there, unlike a junior high, and secondly, the people living as well as the people working there, are all ostensibly adults. You might argue that many are Democrats, but they're still legally to be treated as adults.
Vice said nationally he’s heard that law enforcement officials oppose the argument in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed and 17 were wounded, that allowing guns on campuses would help guard against campus shooters.
....and? I too have heard some of my employees violating their oaths by dissing my Constitutional rights, but so what? Such speech doesn't denigrate those rights, but rather calls into question the suitability of the speaker to continue in my employ in his current capacity.
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