Liberty University OKs concealed guns on campus

Liberty University enacted a policy allowing visitors, students and staff who have concealed weapons permits to carry guns on campus.

The policy, approved Friday by the Board of Trustees and announced to students Wednesday, replaces a complete ban of firearms on university grounds.

Visitors are now permitted to store their weapons in locked cars, while students can apply for permission from campus police to carry a gun on the outdoor grounds or in a locked car. Both groups must have concealed-weapons permits and are prohibited from bringing firearms into any campus building, including dormitories, stadiums and academic halls.

The policy also permits some faculty and staff to carry weapons inside buildings, with permission granted on a case-by-case basis by campus police.

Liberty now has the most lenient firearms policy among local colleges and universities. Lynchburg College, Randolph College and Central Virginia Community College do not permit anyone except law enforcement to carry firearms. At Sweet Briar College, a rural campus that includes faculty and staff homes, firearms are highly regulated but sometimes allowed for hunting with a college-issued permit.

Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said the new policy will enhance campus safety while increasing convenience for visitors and students who have the proper permits.

“It adds to the security and safety of the campus and it’s a good thing. If something — God forbid — ever happened like what happened at Virginia Tech, there would be more than just our police officers who would be able to deal with it.”

Col. Richard Hinkley, Liberty’s longtime chief of police, said while he supports the policy, it has raised some concerns among his officers. With more guns on campus, the risk of an accident is greater, he said, adding the stakes are especially high when dealing with an extreme situation, like an armed gunman.

“If we get an active shooter situation, there may be other people with guns. That will be a concern of the officers responding: Which one is really a bad guy?”

Hinkley also worries students may become desensitized to seeing guns on campus and fail to report something that would have been suspicious in the past.

“My biggest fear is that kids get used to guns being here, see one on somebody and not call and that be the person that was walking in to shoot someone or do harm to someone else,” Hinkley said.

Lifting Liberty’s firearms ban has been a hot-button issue in recent years, especially after the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2008 that left 33 dead, including the gunman. A small but vocal band of LU students who align with the activist group, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, raised the issue with the student government association at least two times in the past three years.

In the spring of 2009, the trustees voted down a proposal authorizing students with valid permits to bring guns into classrooms and dormitories — a scenario that still causes unease among many university officials.

“We all pretty much decided that’s not a good thing,” Falwell said. “With young people in close proximity, guns in dorms where there’s a lot of 18-year-old residents, it just didn’t sound like a good scenario.”

The new policy was more appealing because its narrow scope still bans students from carrying guns in residence halls and classrooms, said Falwell. The board passed it with a unanimous vote.

Liberty senior Craig Storrs, who spearheaded the student effort to lobby for a policy change, said he’s “over the moon” at the university’s decision.

“I thought I’d be graduating and still having to fight for it because it is a very controversial policy and not a lot of schools are willing to take the risk,” said Storrs, who expects to receive his concealed weapons permit by January.

“It makes me feel secure knowing I would be able to defend myself if something does happen, like Virginia Tech or if I get stopped on the street for a mugging or something like that.”

Falwell added the policy aligns with Liberty’s conservative values, and noted the dozens of colleges allow some form of conceal carry on campus.

“I think it’s consistent for a school, for a student body that’s strongly in favor of the Second Amendment. . . to have policies that are at least as lenient as a number of other universities.”

Liberty expects to finalize the form allowing students, faculty and staff to carry guns on campus by Dec. 1, Hinkley said.

Students, staff and faculty will have to pass a comprehensive background check and meet high character standards, in addition to the state’s requirements for a concealed weapon permit. Alcohol citations, honor code violations and other infractions will automatically disqualify students.

Cody May, president of LU’s Student Government Association, said in a written statement the new policy is “a balanced approach to such a ‘controversial’ topic.

“The new concealed carry policy is an important milestone at Liberty University ... I think it allows students who are trained and licensed to carry a concealed weapon the freedom to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” May said.