Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Announces National Collegiate Empty Holster Protest (Wow)

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus ^ | Staff

[DaveLoneRanger]

During the week of October 22-26, 2007, college students throughout America, organized under the banner of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.

In 39 U.S. states, thousands of collegiate students and faculty—age 21 and above—are licensed to carry concealed handguns throughout their day-to-day lives. And they do so without incident. However, despite the absence of any compelling evidence that these licensed individuals would pose any more threat to college campuses than they currently do to office buildings, shopping malls, movie theaters, grocery stores, banks, etc., they are prohibited, either by state law or school policy, from carrying their firearms onto most college campuses.

On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims—He wasn’t concerned with following the rules. Undeterred by Virginia Tech’s status as a “gun free zone,” this mentally unstable individual carried two handguns onto the university campus and indiscriminately opened fire.

In the last twenty years, the vast majority of the mass shootings in America—from the Texas Luby’s massacre to the Columbine High School massacre—have happened in “gun free zones.” Labeling an area “gun free” may make some people feel safer, but as the shootings at Virginia Tech taught us, feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing.

For over a year, state law in Utah has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. This has yet to result in a single act of violence. Numerous studies* by independent researchers and state agencies show that license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to be arrested for violent crimes. Clearly, license holders pose little threat to college campuses.

There is a wide discrepancy between the intent of campus gun bans and the actual consequences of such bans. It is this discrepancy to which the students of SCCC hope their Empty Holster Protest will draw attention. While opponents may argue that guns have no place in institutions of higher learning, SCCC contends that it is the threat of uncontested, execution-style massacre that has no place in America’s colleges. The students of the Empty Holster Protest respectfully ask that steps be taken to take the advantage away from those who seek to harm the innocent.

For more information, contact Scott Lewis or visit www.ConcealedCampus.com.

[DaveLoneRanger]

CONTACT:

Scott Lewis – Media Coordinator Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (512) 514-4373 media@concealedcampus.org http://www.ConcealedCampus.com

ABOUT STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS - Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization comprised of college students, parents, and concerned citizens who believe that holders of concealed handgun licenses should enjoy the same rights on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere else. SCCC is dedicated to persuading state governments and school administrators to approve laws and campus policies that will grant all citizens with concealed handgun licenses the right to carry their concealed handguns on college campuses. We are not affiliated with the NRA, a political party, or any other organization.

[padre35]

Now THAT is campus activism that I can support!

[woollyone]

I hope they have a well planned communication network to ge tthe word out nation wide. It would be excellent to see this hit the nation MSM news and begin a yearly protest movement that move to other areas...like DC!...and Chicago!

[DaveLoneRanger]

Why do you think I’m posting it? B-)

[Joe Brower]

Kids with the courage of their convictions. If only there were more of them.

[sergeantdave]

will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest ...

Excellent. But I’m sure the purse carrying wimps running the indoctrination camps will insist wearing holsters creates a climate of hate. Marxists will not tolerate such public displays of individual rights and responsibilites.

Hope the students have their legal options standing by.

[angkor]

I’ve read the official VT report, and I’m convinced that even one student carrying the lowliest of 22 pistols (like an NAA Mini revolver) could have put Cho out of business.

[woollyone]

Good morning Dave,
I sent scott an EM and asked him to let us knwo how the proKABA crowd here might be able to help his cause. Certainly we have enough ping list members to give him a bit of help.

[JimRed]

GUN FREE ZONE
(You’re free to carry your gun here!)

[Gilbo_3]

BUMP !!!

Hope all who participate in this will do whatever they can to document stealth harrassment by anti-gun faculty, maybe a large purge will come from the wet twisted panty brigade across the country in 'academia'...

[DaveLoneRanger]

Holsters, plural? Wow, you're going all-out! :-)

There are some promotional posters on the website, but I don't think they're all that good, and may try my hand at making some of my own.

[A Strict Constructionist]

Maybe it’s time some of the legal eagles on this forum volunteer their time and we contribute money.

[SWO]

STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS demonstrates a better understanding of how to respond to the Virginia Tech shootings than the NRA.
They are taking the offense and choosing the ground to fight on. By framing the problem as ‘the school didn’t let the students defend themselves” they force the administrators to defend their no gun policies. The terms of the argument then become a discussion of why any limitation is good policy. The question raised in the public’s mind is ‘does concealed carry make people and areas where it is allowed safer?’ If they achieve nothing else this time we are back to where we started, and maybe have begun the public opinion shift needed to change the law about carry on campus, like happened with concealed carry in states.


The NRA however is on the strategic defensive. They are fighting a rear guard action now because they didn’t have the wit to frame VT incident properly at the time that it happened. That is as a horrible tragedy resulting from an institutional policy that unreasonably limited the students right of self defense. Instead they are fighting on the anti-gunners ground which is ‘how do we better control access to these dangerous weapons?’ The NRA chose to go along with the anti’s and have an argument about who else should have the authority to automatically remove someone’s gun rights. They then compounded their foolishness by collaborating with our enemies in crafting a Law which has lots of potential for abuse by bureaucrats. The best they will accomplish now is to not get too many folks put in a category that is automatically added to the instant background check no sale list. The question raised in the public mind is “are we giving enough people the authority to put someone on the no-gun list?” The NRA missed a powerful teaching moment at VT. One which could have framed the gun control argument for the next few years, and most importantly this presidential election, as being about the right to self defense, instead of how many more “reasonable” and “common sense restrictions” on the Second Amendment should be enshrined in federal law.
STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS are on the strategic offensive, they are taking the fight to the enemy and looking to regain territory. That’s how you fight when you want to begin winning.

[kAcknor]

STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS demonstrates a better understanding of how to respond to the Virginia Tech shootings than the NRA...
The NRA however is on the strategic defensive.

Nailed it. I just posed this on another thread:

Maybe the actions of the NRA can be attributed to a continued effort to not be seen as a too radical. I remember when the NRA's image took a real hit in the early 1990's when they started talking about Jack Booted Thugs, and President H W Bush publicly resigned from the organization.

I see this as just the opposite. They have moved too far in the other direction and have gotten too close to the likes of those taking our rights.

It's time to push hard for constitutional rights, not run away. After Virgina Tech there were as many or more calls for more guns on campus as there were those to ban. Instead of pressing the advantage the NRA rushed to 'control' a bill that never should have happened in the first place.

It's well past time for the NRA to go on the offensive as opposed constantly seeming to be doing 'damage control'. We have won, or are close to it. The only bill called for in this situation would have been to remove all federal funding from colleges that circumvented state laws on concealed carry. It's time the Left is forced to 'compromise' with us and explain it to THEIR voters.

[theBuckwheat]

In Missouri, in the three years since the passage of CCW, there are now well in excess of 13,000 permitees, yet I do not know of a single arrest due to violations of this law. In fairness, it should be noted that the age limit in Missouri is 25.

That the lack of incidents, and the lack of “wild west” or “gunfights in the street” has not change the attitude of those who insisted these things would be commonplace should CCW be allowed proves that these opponents are not interested in facts.

The lack of incidents and the unchanging shrillness and irrationality of RKBA opponents comes as no surprise. The only time RKBA/CCW opponents are surprise is when their non-solutions to violence fail to protect anyone except the perpetrator.

[DaveLoneRanger]

I think I’ll deploy the armed citizen list just special for this non-armed citizen story. This is a brilliant idea that should get as much exposure as possible. We need as many people as we can to get the word out. There are promotional posters on the main site that I will print out (probably 50 of them) and post around campus.

I’d deeply appreciate you and everyone reading this thread can spread the word. E-mail forwards, printing out posters, telling people, posting elsewhere, etc.

[blackie]

Wake Up America ~ some are standing up and being counted!!

[Billthedrill]

Got a staff memo yesterday that it’s coming to my campus. I offered to bring in a box of holsters for the staff. No takers so far... BTT.

[woollyone]

Joe, care to ping the troops to see if anyone has ideas on how to help this empty holster protest get more legs?

[pabianice]

They will be arrested for disturbing the peace. Watch for it.