The protests for concealed carry are under way in front of Squires Student Center. The Virginia Citizens Defense League, in collaboration with the Libertarians at Virginia Tech, will protest for concealed carry on campus. Students for Gun Free Schools will protest against guns on college campuses.
To learn more about each of these protests, read this article in today’s issue of the Collegiate Times, and visit the VCDL event’s Facebook page and the Students for Gun Free Schools’ Facebook page.
Check this blog for updates, or follow @joshualhiggins on Twitter for live updates.
Last update: [3:40]
The crowd has dwindled, and only a few remain. VCDL has begun taking down their tent and signs.
Last update: [3:04 p.m.]
A photo gallery of today’s protest can be found here. Check out the events of the day.
Last update: [2:55 p.m.]
The number of protesters has decreased significantly from earlier. Protesters have been holding signs and demonstrating at the corner of College Avenue and Otey Street. Police continue to patrol the area, but many of them have congregated in front of Squires.
Last update: [2:34 p.m.]
Protesters on both sides continue talking to students and passersby about gun issues.
Last update: [2:15 p.m.]
No other speakers have spoken. It seems that the number of people participating in the protests is decreasing, but a few protesters are still handing out fliers to people passing by.
Last update: [1:34 p.m.]
No new speakers from VCDL have spoken. Both protests continue to advocate to passersby, but nothing new has occurred. Check this blog for future developments.
Last update: [12:49 p.m.]
Speeches by the VCDL have begun. Kurt Mueller, a Students for Concealed Carry board member, just spoke.
“We believe that law-abiding citizens who have concealed carry permits don’t suddenly become irresponsible once they cross onto a college campus, and likewise, we believe that the criminals who are out there in the world do not suddenly become non-criminals when they cross onto a college campus.” Mueller said.
[CORRECTION: The original quote said "...citizens who have concealed carry permits suddenly become irresponsible..." The actual quote was "...citizens who have concealed carry permits don't suddenly become irresponsible..."]
But Mark Barbour, one of the anti-gun counter protesters, disagrees that concealed carry should be allowed on college campuses.
“I don’t believe anybody should be carrying guns on college campuses,” Barbour said. “My wife is a professor here. I think that some upset student, maybe over a bad grade, could possibly be concealing and carrying a weapon and lose their temper at my wife, or any other professor, or anyone here. It’s just wrong.”
Barbour, along with many of the anti-gun protesters, carried signs promoting gun-free campuses.
Mueller continued to say that concealed carry advocates are making progress toward fewer concealed carry bans on college campuses.
“With the addition of Liberty University, we now have 72 campuses nationwide where concealed carry is occurring for students and faculty,”
The VCDL crowd erupted in applause, while a protester from the anti-gun group said, “Go home! Most of you don’t live here anyway.”
Last update: [12:03 p.m.]
More people have congregated outside of Squires.
Many protesters have posters. One poster said “No guns? No Funds!” and another said “Rapists agree. Keep VT gun-free.”
Speeches have not begun yet, but VCDL advocate said they will begin “very soon.”
Last update: [11:35 a.m.]
VCDL supporters are outside of Squires Student Center handing out “Guns Save Lives” stickers and pamphlets about campus carry. The pamphlet explains a legally non-binding opinion articulated by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, why banning guns on college campuses is a problem, and who concealed carry permit holders are. There is also a list of quotes supporting carry on campus.
Police are also on scene. A few police cars are parked around the protest area, and policemen are patrolling.
No one from the counter-protest has arrived yet.
7 Comments until now
Guns are like fire, really really good when you need it. Go Hokies for bearing arms!
“We believe that law-abiding citizens who have concealed carry permits suddenly become irresponsible once they cross onto a college campus…”- That’s not what he said, I was there…It should read,”…DON’T become irresponsible once they cross onto a college campus…” Come on Josh, if you’re really going to be a reporter for CT let’s not make silly errors, because it can completely change the meaning of that speech and create bias.
I apologize about the typographical error. It has been corrected.
“I don’t believe anybody should be carrying guns on college campuses,” Barbour said. “My wife is a professor here. I think that some upset student, maybe over a bad grade, could possibly be concealing and carrying a weapon and lose their temper at my wife, or any other professor, or anyone here. It’s just wrong.”
As always, please, just ONCE, tell me how a sign, a policy, a regulation or a law will stop that from happening?
“Gun Control: A theory espoused by some monumentally stupid people who claim to believe, against all logic and common sense, that a violent predator who ignores the laws prohibiting them from robbing, raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing their fellow human beings will obey a law telling them that they cannot own [or carry] a gun [on campus]. — Oldnoob”
I carry a concealed pistol and I HOPE I never need to use it. Like the saying goes, It’s better to have it and not need it, than to NEED it and NOT have it.
If your life is being threatened by a violent criminal, you will wish that you had a means to defend yourself besides a cell phone.
I hope that VT will change their policy and will allow students and faculty the OPTION to be able to defend themselves.
My (adult) daughter Dianna was taking MBA classes here on April 16th 2007.
I was visiting relatives in NJ, and, because all the cell circuits were “busy”, could not determine whether she was dead or alive until many hours later. My first thought was: I hope she wasn’t near Norris Hall. My second thought was: I pray to God she has her gun (she has maintained a concealed carry permit since 1994). Fortunately she was fine, and graduated in May, 2007.
My after thoughts include disbelief that VT’s supposedly “educated” administrators can disavow any obligation to protect them from criminal predation, then, in the same breath, persist in their determination to keep their faculty, staff and adult students with concealed carry permits utterly defenseless in the face of all-to-frequent on-campus violence and predation. The blood of Xin Yang, the massacre victims, and every other victim of violence on campus, is already on these administrators’ hands!
Now, these educated-beyond-their-intelligence control freaks, want to convert their “no guns” policy to a “regulation” that would prohibit ALL lawful carry on campus! Why? Not because law-abiding folks who carry defensive firearms have ever committed a crime on campus (and they are certifiably less likely to commit a crime of any sort than the general public), but because they have become so enamored of their own hoplophobic rhetoric, and consumed by their paranoid thoughts about those who to take responsibility for their own safety and that of their families, that it never occurs to them that someone who has already decided to commit mayhem simply will not be deterred from that course by any policy, regulation or law!
Murder is already a capital offense. If the VT administrators really believe that a “no guns” regulation or law (as opposed to the “no guns” policy that existed on April 16th) would have stopped Cho, then they are truly “stuck on stupid”!
The only reasonable choice is to abandon completely the concept of “gun-free zones”; they only protect criminals!
Dave Knight
Radford, VA
Once again, the VCDL Follows all the rules, jumps through all the hoops,coughs up the money,sticks to its assigned area,takes the time to properly make arrangements by the book,and the antis do nothing, contribute nothing,and take up space wherever they bloody well feel like it (they were SUPPOSED to occupy the grassy area in front of the graduate building, instead they hijack the streetside curb). No respect for the rules, or anyone who disagrees with them. The Tech police dept was courteous, friendly, and otherwise professional. Too bad the rules weren’t enforced. I doubt that it was their fault. I’m sure that they were pressured by the admin to let the antis do whatever they pleased.