Free Republic

A federal judge on Monday refused to issue a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit by three University of Texas professors who do not want legal concealed carry in their classes. With the state’s new campus carry law taking effect this month, the professors kept a promise of litigation and filed suit in federal court in July seeking a federal injunction on campus carry naming Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, UT President Gregory Fenves and members of the school’s Board of Regents in their official capacity, as defendants. Paxton, in response, filed paperwork in opposition to the professors’ action earlier...

If any of my family members found out I engaged in such a rally, I would be pulled out of college faster than you can say Jack Robinson. But if that would be before or after the butt whooping I would receive... I couldn't tell you. The College Fix reported that the Campus (Dildo) Carry protest will take place on August 24 at the University of Texas at Austin. The anti-gun demonstration was organized on Facebook by three current students: Jessica Jin, Ana López and Kailey Nicole Moore. According to the group's Facebook event page, the demonstration will entail “strapping gigantic swinging dildos to [their]...

"It frustrates me that so many of my peers and professors have reacted so negatively. "I did not grow up around guns. "In fact, I was raised by a single mother who despised guns, in Carrollton, Texas, a relatively peaceful suburb of Dallas. "In grad school, my views evolved. I began to learn more about the prevalence of campus sexual assault in America, and I would sometimes leave class at 10 p.m., only to later hear about an assault on campus that night. I was sick of feeling like a potential victim. I had always been an advocate for providing...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas will allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public university buildings, classrooms and dorms starting Monday, which is also the 50th anniversary of the mass shooting at the University of Texas' landmark clock tower. The campus-carry law pushed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican legislative majority will make Texas one of a handful of states that guarantee the right to carry concealed handguns on campus. Here's a Q &A on how the law will work:

Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia has vetoed HB 859, which would authorize the carry of concealed weapons by concealed carry permit holder on Georgia campuses. The bill was very popular in the legislature, passing with wide margins. The bill passed the House 113 to 59, and the Senate 37 to 17.From Governor Deal’s statement on the veto at georiga.gov: HB 859 seeks to amend O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127.1, which relates to the carrying of weapons within school safety zones. It would add an exception to the prohibition of carrying or possessing a weapon in such school zones, to “any licensed...

Georgia Governor Nathan deal has said that he will either sign or veto the Campus Carry bill passed by the Georgia legislature today, 3 May, 2016. The bill was very popular in the legislature, passing with wide margins. The bill passed the House 113 to 59, and the Senate 37 to 17.  As the Legislature is adjourned, their is no reasonable possibility of a veto override. From 11alive.com: The May 3 deadline is here for Gov. Nathan Deal to make his decision whether to sign or veto the 'Campus Carry' bill. After the religious freedom bill, which Deal vetoed...

Image from campusreform.org Universities are developing a deserved reputation for places that act as little fascist states, only allowing speech that the University Administration agrees with, or is considered "politically correct".  The University of Alabama has lived up to the reputation by citing a student who was peacefully wearing an empty holster in a protest over the Universitity's no weapon policy.  The campus police explicitly say that they are citing the student because "someone called it in".  The campus policy does not prohibit holsters.  The citation is for "Engaging in activities that threaten the safety of the campus community"...

A bill in the Alaskan legislature, SB174, has passed the Senate Judiciary committee.  In the Committee, amendments were added that give the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska extraordinary power and immunity.  The legislation would give the Board of Regents the power to ban the open carry of knives and guns.  No city in Alaska has that power. From SB174(pdf): (c) The Board of Regents may adopt and enforce policies (1) regulating the possession, ownership, use, carrying, registration,storage, and transportation of openly carried firearms and knives; It would grant the Board of Regents, all their staff, and...

Members of the University of Georgia community continue to add their voices in opposition to House Bill 859, the “campus carry” bill that would allow guns on most parts of the UGA campus. In the past week, parents of children enrolled in UGA daycare facilities and the College of Education faculty Senate have written letters to Gov. Nathan Deal urging him to veto it. They’ve joined the university administration, University Council, Franklin College faculty Senate and numerous individual students and faculty members.

The Georgia campus carry bill has caused some concern in Governor Deal's office.  It is not clear what, if anything, Governor Deal means to do.  However, he issued a troubling statement on Tuesday, 15 March, about a day after he recieved the campus carry bill, HB859. The bill passed the House 113 to 59, and the Senate 37 to 17.   A two thirds vote is needed for a veto override. There are sufficient votes in the Senate to override, but the House would be problematical.  Governor Deal did not say that he intended to veto the campus carry bill. ...

he Georgia campus carry bill is moving forward.  On February 22, the House passed HB859 113 to 59.  The bill has a number of compromises.  It bans guns at athletic events, which would likely pass Constitutional muster.  It also retains a ban on guns in housing, including the privately owned housing of fraternity and sorority houses.  On 11 March, the Senate passed HB859 37 to 17.  From wsbtv.com: Georgia’s state Senate voted to approve a bill allowing licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons on public college campuses. The proposal backed by the National Rifle Association won support from...

Alaska instituted a ban on concealed carry sometime after statehood in 1959.  They reformed the law to a shall issue permit system in 1994.  The University of Alaska instituted a no weapons policy in 1995.  Alaska was the first state to restore permitless carry in 2003.  It added a strong pre-emption law forbidding government entities from enacting law more restrictive than state law, about 10 years ago. The National Conference of State Legislators claims that 23 states allow campuses to decide for themselves whether to ban concealed weapons or not.  They include Alaska on that list.  Their claim does...

In a recent column in the Atlantic titled “How Guns Could Censor College Classrooms,” Firmin DeBrabander argues the mere presence of firearms on campus will hurt intellectual discourse in the classroom. DeBrabander, who teaches philosophy at Maryland Institute College of Art, writes, “Campus carry will make students and faculty less inclined to engage in the critical intellectual work that must take place in the classroom.” He adds, “I fear that campus carry will make students and faculty less inclined to engage in the critical intellectual work that must take place in the classroom, the courageous inquiry and experimentation American democracy...

Campus carry is moving in Alaska.  Many would argue that the campus regulations that forbid campus carry are already illegal.  The State Constitution and the Alaskan preemption law are clear.  Here is the opening paragraph of AS 29.35.145:  (a) The authority to regulate firearms and knives is reserved to the state, and, except as specifically provided by statute, a municipality may not enact or enforce an ordinance regulating the possession, ownership, sale, transfer, use, carrying, transportation, licensing, taxation, or registration of firearms or knives. The Statute appears to have been in force since 2006. The current rule by the...

Yesterday, 22 February, 2016, the Georgia House passed a campus safety act that restores some of the Second Amendment rights to people who have a Georgia Weapons Carry License (WCL).  In 2014, a gun law reform bill passed that seemed to allow carry on campus for people with a WCL, but the wording allowed for ambiguity of interpretation.  The reform passed by the house yesterday is clear and unambiguous. From HB859(pdf):  15 "(19)(A) Any license holder when he or she is in any building or on real property16 owned by or leased to any public technical school, vocational school,...

Image from abc.15.com Superior Court Judge Dan Slayton refused to reduce the 2 Million dollar bail for Steven Jones, who pleaded self defense last year after being beat and chased by a group of fraternity men at Northern Arizona University.   The prosecutor's office is the Coconino County Attorneys office out of Flagstaff. It is the same prosecutor's office that handled the infamous Harold Fish case.  Fish also pleaded self defense.  Prosecutors mishandled the Fish case.  He spent three years in prison until an appeals court overturned the conviction and released him pending a new trial. Coconino prosecutors asked the...

The new campus carry law in Texas takes effect in August, but if the University of Texas has its way it won’t be a smooth transition. The university president seems to be taking the attitude of someone being dragged kicking and screaming into accepting the law of the land and he’s planning to mandate some extra-legal restrictions on his own. The big sticking point seems to be that he thinks he’s within his rights to ban guns in university housing. (Fox News) Texas’ new law allowing college students to carry guns on public campuses doesn’t take effect until August, but...

There may be a solution to school shootings but liberals might not want to hear it because it involves either calling the cops or carrying a gun. “Dr. J. Eric Dietz, director of Purdue University’s Homeland Security Institute, concluded that in a study of all mass shootings since the 1950s, only two occurred outside gun-free zones,” Jesse Kremer, a Republican state representative from Wisconsin, claimed on his web site. When contacted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dr. Dietz was more measured in his conclusions. Nevertheless, the reporter he talked to, Eric Kelderman, reported that “Mr. Dietz, a former director...

I attended the  University of Wisconsin, Madison, for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees.  I was on the pistol team for most of my undergraduate career, but I was only eligible for one year as a graduate student.  While the university rules were hostile to firearms ownership in the 1970s, the social atmosphere was fairly accepting.  I kept a pistol, rifle, and shotgun in my dorm room.  I later learned it was in violation of the rules; everyone knew I had them, including the dorm house-fellow, who was nominally responsible for enforcing the rules.   Perhaps the fact that I...

In 2012, Kansas reformed its concealed carry law.   People who were exercising their Second Amendment rights would no longer be excluded from public buildings, unless the building took active measures to insure that armed criminals would also be excluded.  Active measure included guards and metal detectors on entrances.  From kansan.com: The law would allow the University to secure the campus against guns by using metal detectors and guards, but it would cost more than $20 million to secure all 237 campus buildings, according to a 2013 report that the University gave to the Board of Regents. If the University...