Posted on 03/18/2010 7:31:21 AM PDT by marktwain
When some Tarrant County College students staged a protest for the right to carry licensed, concealed handguns, they didn't realize it would turn into a three-year fight over empty gun holsters.
The college said it didn't want students wearing the empty holsters on campus. The school was afraid other students might think there were guns inside the holsters or that some students might use the occasion to bring guns to campus.
As a safety precaution, the college confined the concealed handguns student protests to a 'free speech zone' and wouldn't allow any gun holsters on campus.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) the restriction as violation of first amendment rights - the freedom of expression. They took the battle to court and a federal judge has ruled in favor of the students.
Clayton Smith was a TCC student two years ago. He says he and John Schwertz Jr. inherited the holster fight from students who had started it the year before.
Smith is happy about the judge's ruling and says the focus can now get back to their original protest - for the right for students to carry concealed handguns on campus.
Under the ruling, students will be able to wear or carry empty gun holsters anywhere on campus, even in class. Karin Cagle, an ACLU Attorney, explained that U.S. District Court Judge Terry R. Means saw TCC's fear of a potential disruption as just too remote. "Anytime you get a victory for the constitution, you get a victory for all of us," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs11tv.com ...
Sure.
As long as those holsters are EMPTY.
LOL
This is in TEXAS?!? Don’t sound like Texas...sounds like Mass or Naw Yark.
(shakes head, walks away)
Surely this is one of the signs of the Apocalypse.
I think that this might be satire. The ACLU and a Judge standing up for people’s second amendment rights.
While Texas is mostly conservative, don’t forget that L.B.J. was from there, and everything in Texas is big. Even the liberals. :)
No,it is real. I watched this issue when it happened three years ago. I thought the school was way out of bound then, and it was. It is surprising that the ACLU backed the students up, but it may have been a local chapter. It is hard to see how the court could support this and not find the many politically correct codes of conduct that suppress free speech at universities to be unconstitutional as well.
Here is an article from 3008:
http://cbs11tv.com/business/education/concealed.weapon.handgun.2.731823.html
Typo, not 3008, 2008.
There is a good video at the link, if you have a broadband connection.
The Texas branch of the ACLU is reportedly quite a bit different than the national ACLU (which is HQ'ed in NY).
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