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File Photo by Jill Nance/The News & Advance
Two Liberty University students sit on the steps of DeMoss Hall last month. LU officials say they will consider whether concealed weapons permit holders will be allowed to carry guns on campus.
Liberty University will consider whether to allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry guns on campus at its next board of trustees meeting, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said Thursday.
If it adopted the policy change, Liberty would become one nearly a dozen colleges nationally to allow concealed weapons on campus, according to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.
Falwell said he decided to bring the matter before the board for discussion after members of Liberty’s chapter of SCCC requested it.
“We just have a group on campus that’s been promoting that idea, and I really don’t have a good feel for whether our community would support it or not,” Falwell said. “So I just decided to take it to the board.”
Currently the university does not allow those with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun on campus, he said.
The board of trustees has 38 members, including Falwell and his brother Jonathan. The next meeting is in early March.
The body may not make a decision on the issue, Falwell said, but will at least consider it.
“I want to make sure that we look at it long and hard before we make a decision,” he said.
“Between now and the board meeting, we’ll have RAs (resident advisers) talking to students and see what they think about it.”
Falwell also has not formed an opinion on the issue, he said.
Liberty senior Ben Neiman, leader of Liberty’s chapter of SCCC, said the group has more than 300 members, mostly students, staff and faculty.
Nationally, the organization has more than 30,000 members at hundreds of schools.
“These are people who already have their concealed carry permits, and you mingle with them in movie theaters and shopping malls around town anyways,” Neiman said. “We’re just all about our own safety. We realize that campuses are generally safe, but in the off chance that we are threatened, we want to be able to defend ourselves.”
Utah is the only state that does not allow any of its nine public universities to restrict people from carrying concealed weapons on campus.
According to the SCCC, Colorado State University and Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, Va., are the only other schools that allow concealed carry on campus.
In Virginia, where one must be at least 21 years old to apply for a concealed handgun permit, each college can decide whether to allow guns on campus.
Leading up to the meeting in March, Falwell said board members have much to consider, such as how difficult the process is to get a permit to carry.
He also hopes to ask students and faculty for their opinions, and learn more about the arguments from both sides of the issue.
“I understand all the concern about security, and that’s why I’m even going to mention it to the board,” Falwell said.
“If the board thinks that would enhance security, then it might be something they would be in favor of.”
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Reader Reactions
So Martha, are you conflicted with the decision to either support taxes for fire departments or buy a fire extinguisher for yourself? It is prudent to do both, be prepared to help yourself before public help can get there, and be supportive of the public help that is available. There is no conflict of interest, and acknowledging the fact that firemen cannot be expected to get to your house before the entire thing is burned up does not negligence the value of their existence. The same is true for police and your responsibility to defend yourself from an immediate threat.
“Posted by ( Martha ) on October 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Gee Skydancer,
My tax dollars and yours can now be saved since police are no protection to me and are trained poorly. Thanks, I feel so much better.
We can put that money towards revitalizing downtown so we won’t need police there, eh?“
Gee Martha,
Is sarcasm the only logic you have left for an argument?
response to (JacksonPollock)
UVA, JMU, VT, MCV, ODU, NC State, and the list goes on and on and on; all schools that prohibit self defense…and all enjoy a record (all of them) of robberies, rapes, assualts, even murders. Why don’t we hear about it in the news? Because it happens often enough that it isn’t sensational enough to be news worthy.
I’ll bet it was plenty news worthy to the defenseless victims of those crimes. Should we all go defenseless just because statistically we are “comparatively safe?“ Should we be defenseless and just hope that we won’t be the one who becomes the object of someone’s expression of violence?
I for one will go no where without the means to protect myself. You may do as you wish. Just don’t try to force others to be defenseless because you choose to be.
Gee Skydancer,
My tax dollars and yours can now be saved since police are no protection to me and are trained poorly. Thanks, I feel so much better.
We can put that money towards revitalizing downtown so we won’t need police there, eh?
It is apparent that campus policies prohibiting firearms did nothing to prevent the recent tragedies on the campuses of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. It is logical to assume that an individual who is prone to commit murder will not be swayed by laws or rules preventing the possession of a tool to commit their crime.
In 2006 there were 4 instances of forcible sex offenses on Liberty University’s campus.
After looking at what has not worked in the past, we can also look elsewhere in the country where firearms regulations are not in effect on college campuses. Less than 100 miles north of Liberty is Blue Ridge Community College, a campus with 9612 registered students. Their weapons policy provides an exemption for Virginia concealed handgun permit holders, allowing them to carry a concealed handgun on campus. Not only has their policy not lead to the types of mass shootings that have occurred on other campuses, but a look at their crime incident report reveals that no violent crimes occurred on the campus at all. Their incident reports (available at http://www.brcc.edu/student/right/incident.htm) consist nearly entirely of accidents.
An example of a larger, traditional University where firearms are not prohibited when carried lawfully by permit holders is Brigham Young University in Utah. Utah state law does not allow universities to prohibit the licensed carrying of a concealed firearm. BYU has over 30,000 students attending full or 3/4 time, and even more students at half time or less. Brigham Young University’s crime report (available at http://police.byu.edu/images/stories/police/files/2007_Campus_Security_Report.pdf) shows only two instances of violence (aggravated assault) and zero sex offenses. There were not even any weapons violations in the crime report,despite the fact that students are documented to be carrying concealed weapons in Brigham Young University (see http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/20/cnnu.guns/index.html).
(Martha)
The police are not as universally well trained as you may like to think. Some are exceptionally well trained, others not so well. (I used to be one…I know)
The real question here is; whose responsibility is it to provide for your protection? It certainly is not the police. Since the 1800s every high court (including the Supreme Court) in the US has handed down virtually the same desision: “The police have no lawful responsibility to provide for the protection of the individual citizen.“
It is the responsibility of the individual to provide for their own protection. It is the responsibility of the individual to obtain the training and avail themselves of the means to provide for that personal protection. It is impossible for the police to defend the individual citizen from violent personal attack. It is not their job. Their job is to investigate crimes (yes, that is past tense) and apprehend law breakers.
There has been a lot of discussion here about protection from deadly attack. What about assualt, rape, robbery? Other posters have railed about how safe UVA is (along with a long list of other schools). They convienently left out the rapes, robberies, and assualts that occur at schools such as UVA, MCV, ODU, PSU, ect-ect-ect
Personal protection is not only about defending against murdering rampage. It is also about defending against any manner of extreme violence that no law abiding citizen should have to put up with.
A balanced approach is necessary when a person takes on the responsibility of personal protection…making yourself defenseless while counting on someone else to do the job for you is NOT balanced.
Remember: When seconds count…the police are only minutes away.
JacksonPollock:
“You mention VT and YOU ask the students killed at VT - oh, YOU can’t ask the students. They are dead…“
Thank you, you just proved my point.
“For every example of a place where students and/or faculty are allowed to carry, I can give you hundreds of examples of where there has been no violence at places where students/faculty are NOT allowed to carry guns. “
Of course this is true because very few Universities currently allow concealed carry. You can’t argue raw numbers in this context. That’s like saying “Cars are more dangerous than tigers, because for every example of a mauling you show me I can show you thousands of car accident deaths.“ You have to compare ratios when dealing with unequal playing fields.
I’m not siding with the Falwells, Bushes, or McCains. I am not sure where that came from. There is no need to politicize this discussion. Please stick to topic at hand and provide some meaningful information if you want to continue the debate.
It would be a tragedy and a shame if what happened at VT happened at any other university in our great nation. People should not have to rely on emergency contingency systems that do not work. You are responsible for your own welfare and the police are not, according to a few supreme court decisions. In just a few seconds lives can be lost or forever changed for the worse. Feeling safe and actually being safe are not the same. At minimum with an armed populace the intended victims have a chance to defend themselves and others. Criminals, do not obey warning signs prohibiting guns from locations. These signs only advertise and create unsafe areas or free kill zones for the criminals hell bent for carnage and murder. I hope that the entire nation will awake and adopt true self defense type measures that will make it more difficult for killers to commit mass murder.
If any of you who think campus will somehow be dangerous if concealed weapons are allowed want to maintain any pretense of consistency than you better blockade your doors and live as a hermit. Walking down the street, in the grocery store, the movie theater or across from you in a restaurant are the exact same students already lawfully carrying their concealed weapons. Do you feel in danger in those places? Are there shootouts happening? They are the same “immature”, “young” students that you think can’t carry on campus, but they are already carrying off campus. The proof is in the pudding. Permit holders are the most law abiding group of people in the state. All we want is to allow those same people to continue their daily routine without arbitrary rule changes when the step on campus.
The key is training and there is woefully little training for a concealed weapon permit. A 21 year old police officer is not only trained HOW to use a weapon but how to defuse a situation w/out using one.That training doesn’t mean that officer always uses correct judgment in every situation.
I have no idea how easy it is to get a license to carry a concealed weapon but IMHO it should be stringent.
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