On Wednesday, March 19, I got a phone call from a member of the Judicial Services department regarding a concern filed by an instructor over a leather holster. I was quick to correct him and let him know that I make holsters out of a thermoplastic called Kydex. He said, "Well ... Can I see it?" I said sure and set the meeting for 2:00 p.m. Eastern, after my second class of the day. Today, I talked with two of my instructors and a third who happened to be a friend, letting them know what was going on and asking whether they would supply character references, just in case the meeting went sideways. One of them happened to be the person who filed the concern. She explained to me her report began, ended, and stressed that I was a great student and didn't seem to be a real threat. However, she couldn't let our last conversation go without reporting. After the last class before spring break, I approached the teacher and asked if there was a plan in place in the case of a bad man coming through the door with a loud black stick. I expressed a desire to help with the plan, and she mentioned locking the door. This immediately set off a "Ding" in my head because the Newtown shooter shot through the lock on the exterior doors. I then went and wrote an article for the school newspaper about exactly such a topic, complete with options that do not rely on locks (such as multiple door stops kicked under the door). This is the context for her filing the concern. I talked with BettyJane quite a bit too late, but still got some excellent feedback from the members here. I started my video recorder on my phone and the audio recorder in my pocket, letting them both run from just before the meeting began until I was well away from him. I went into the room and set my backpack on the chair in front of me and my phone (still recording) in front of that. I set my spiral notebook on the small desk to my left and stood at parade rest as suggested in this thread. The man (named Boyd) immediately confused my cell phone holder for the holster, which led to the story of how I got into making such things for myself. We talked about phones and cases and contrasted his to mine, then he asked whether I brought the holster with me. I said that I did and waited for him to ask for it. He did, I produced it from my backpack and handed it to him. He examined it and immediately said he didn't have a problem with my wearing of it but had to check out the policy on the matter. He handed it back to me and I placed it on the desk while he pulled out a small book and started looking for it. I took out a page with the campus weapons policy from the pocket in my spiral notebook and handed it to him. He said that was right, but it there was another policy on the matter. He then called a female associate who came by and expressed a complete lack of understanding for my entire goal. I had to explain to her that I want people to see me and have one of two reactions: 1) Hey, that guy isn't crazy. Maybe my opinion of gun owners is wrong. 2) Hey, I wonder why he's doing that. I should ask. This would (hopefully) spark conversation about gun rights in general, especially campus carry. She didn't get it. She said that she was worried that I may become a target of security, should something bad happen on campus. I responded that I'm a target all the time. I wear a ring, drive a car, and am religious. She said she would research to see if it was against policy and would get back to me next week. Her next words were, and I quote, "Could you just not wear it today?" Irony struck, as I was wearing the belt attachment for a drop-thigh holster today. I spoke up about the severe lack of questions as to how long I'd been wearing an empty holster on campus. The woman said she had budgets to do and left. I asked Boyd whether he wondered at all, then let him know I'd been using the empty holster protest since fall semester of 2013, well over half a year. He said I appeared to be of pretty good character, as he had never heard of me before. The meeting took up a whole 21 minutes and ended with me explaining the context of the phone call and presenting a printed version of the article for him to glance over. I brought attention to the point about locks, and he seemed satisfied that I wasn't the dangerous kind of crazy. Shook my hand, said he hoped to bump into me around campus, and that was it. Thanks for everybody for sticking along for the ride, and special thanks go to the people who gave awesome (or funny; see "Global Warming Grows Guns") advice.
Today, I talked with two of my instructors and a third who happened to be a friend, letting them know what was going on and asking whether they would supply character references, just in case the meeting went sideways. One of them happened to be the person who filed the concern. She explained to me her report began, ended, and stressed that I was a great student and didn't seem to be a real threat. However, she couldn't let our last conversation go without reporting.
After the last class before spring break, I approached the teacher and asked if there was a plan in place in the case of a bad man coming through the door with a loud black stick. I expressed a desire to help with the plan, and she mentioned locking the door. This immediately set off a "Ding" in my head because the Newtown shooter shot through the lock on the exterior doors. I then went and wrote an article for the school newspaper about exactly such a topic, complete with options that do not rely on locks (such as multiple door stops kicked under the door). This is the context for her filing the concern.
I talked with BettyJane quite a bit too late, but still got some excellent feedback from the members here. I started my video recorder on my phone and the audio recorder in my pocket, letting them both run from just before the meeting began until I was well away from him.
I went into the room and set my backpack on the chair in front of me and my phone (still recording) in front of that. I set my spiral notebook on the small desk to my left and stood at parade rest as suggested in this thread.
The man (named Boyd) immediately confused my cell phone holder for the holster, which led to the story of how I got into making such things for myself. We talked about phones and cases and contrasted his to mine, then he asked whether I brought the holster with me. I said that I did and waited for him to ask for it. He did, I produced it from my backpack and handed it to him. He examined it and immediately said he didn't have a problem with my wearing of it but had to check out the policy on the matter.
He handed it back to me and I placed it on the desk while he pulled out a small book and started looking for it. I took out a page with the campus weapons policy from the pocket in my spiral notebook and handed it to him. He said that was right, but it there was another policy on the matter. He then called a female associate who came by and expressed a complete lack of understanding for my entire goal.
I had to explain to her that I want people to see me and have one of two reactions:
1) Hey, that guy isn't crazy. Maybe my opinion of gunowners is wrong.
2) Hey, I wonder why he's doing that. I should ask.
This would (hopefully) spark conversation about gun rights in general, especially campus carry.
She didn't get it.
She said that she was worried that I may become a target of security, should something bad happen on campus. I responded that I'm a target all the time. I wear a ring, drive a car, and am religious. She said she would research to see if it was against policy and would get back to me next week. Her next words were, and I quote, "Could you just not wear it today?" Irony struck, as I was wearing the belt attachment for a drop-thigh holster today.
I spoke up about the severe lack of questions as to how long I'd been wearing an empty holster on campus. The woman said she had budgets to do and left. I asked Boyd whether he wondered at all, then let him know I'd been using the empty holster protest since fall semester of 2013, well over half a year. He said I appeared to be of pretty good character, as he had never heard of me before.
The meeting took up a whole 21 minutes and ended with me explaining the context of the phone call and presenting a printed version of the article for him to glance over. I brought attention to the point about locks, and he seemed satisfied that I wasn't the dangerous kind of crazy. Shook my hand, said he hoped to bump into me around campus, and that was it.
Thanks for everybody for sticking along for the ride, and special thanks go to the people who gave awesome (or funny; see "Global Warming Grows Guns") advice.