Virginia Tech has the right to choose whether people are allowed to carry concealed weapons on its campus. Nearly five years after the April 16, 2007, campus shootings, there is still disagreement over which choice is more likely to prevent future campus violence.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League, sponsored by the Libertarians at Virginia Tech, will visit Tech today and demonstrate in front of Squires Student Center to advocate the concealed carry of weapons, which Tech currently prohibits along with all but one Virginia college — Blue Ridge Community College.
Students for Gun Free Schools will host a counter-movement called “School Walk-Out: Keep Guns off VT Campus,” according to the event’s Facebook page, in response to VCDL’s visit to Tech, making Thursday a key date for the debate surrounding concealed carry on campus in Virginia.
Related: Polar politics columns on concealed carry
The protests come only one day after Liberty University announced a change in its firearms policy. The private univerity in Lynchburg, Va. now allows guests with concealed handgun permits to carry guns in their cars and on the grounds, but not in buildings. Faculty and students can also do so if they get permission for the Liberty University Police Department.
Concealed carry advocates argue that letting permit holders bring their guns on campus is not a safety hazard, and may actually create a safer environment.
“It’s important that we recognize the fact that these laws and regulations aren’t going to stop criminals,” said Eric Smith, president of the Libertarian Club and a junior chemical engineering major.
But despite the argument for concealed carry on campus, the university maintains that concealed carry of guns on campus should not be allowed.
“The university believes that guns don’t belong on campus, in our classes, or in our dormitories,” said Larry Hincker, university spokesman.
And for Colin Goddard, making sure that guns remain off campus is of utmost importance. Goddard was injured in the April 16 shootings. Goddard was sitting in French class when he was shot four times by Seung-Hui Cho that day.
He made a recovery and now promotes gun-free schools.
“It’s changed my life,” Goddard said. “I’ve devoted all my time and effort to helping educate Americans about what we do in this country with guns, what we don’t do, and what we should be doing.”
Although he said gun issues are important, Goddard said mental health issues should be a priority.
“We need to do background checks on people,” Goddard said. “This is bigger than a gun issue. Mental health issues should be at the center of this debate about what we’re doing about campus violence, but it’s not, and it’s a shame.”
And some students like Maggie McVicar, a sophomore communication major, agree with the university and those associated with April 16 that guns could disrupt the educational environment.
“Guns make me feel uncomfortable and uneasy,” McVicar said. She will be attending the Students for Gun Free Schools protest.
Lori Haas, whose daughter was injured in the April 16 shootings, will be attending the counter-prostest as well.
“My daughter Emily was shot twice in the back of the head on April 16, 2007, and I have worked on gun violence prevention issues since then,” Haas said. “College campuses are absolutely no place for loaded guns.”
“It isn’t that difficult to get a concealed carry license in Virginia, and that just worries me — a person could potentially be carrying around a gun and not know how to use it,” McVicar said.
To get a permit in Virginia, an applicant must send in a form to their county’s courthouse and pass a competency test, which can be completed online if it is taught by a state-certified or National Rifle Association instructor.
Goddard said problems with the system for acquiring guns need to be fixed. He said the background check system needs to be expanded and improved, and the process for getting a concealed carry permit should become more difficult.
“I was blown away by how easy it was to get guns in this country,” Goddard said. “I just couldn’t believe it, so I wanted to speak out, and now I am.”
Smith disagrees on principle.
“I personally do not believe one should have to get a permit to carry a firearm. Several states, such as Vermont and Arizona, do not require a permit to carry for anyone over 21. Anyone who hasn’t committed a violent crime should be able to carry a firearm whenever and wherever they want, with few exceptions.” he said, but noted Virginia is easier than other states.
“Ohio, (where I’m from,) has much stricter permit requirements. It requires a 12-hour course, mandatory FBI background check, and a few other requirements. Virginia’s concealed carry laws are not the easiest in the nation, but certainly on the more lenient side of things,” he said.
Currently, the Campus and Workplace Violence Prevention Policy says university employees, students, volunteers, visitors and other third parties are banned from having weapons at sporting, entertainment or educational events, or while visiting university buildings. This policy also applies to any event where people congregate in public or outdoor areas.
Failure to comply with the policy can result in a student conduct referral, an employee disciplinary action or arrest.
The carry of open or concealed weapons, however, is not prohibited on campus grounds, because, as a public university, campus grounds are considered public property and are not covered by university policy.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said in a non-binding legal opinion that university policy is insufficient, and a state regulation would need to be implemented for universities to ban legal concealed carry in campus buildings.
However, earlier this year, a Virginia Supreme Court ruling decided that public universities may ban open carry of firearms in buildings and at events through university policy.
Regardless of policies, the controversy continues to evoke strong responses. Some argue shootings can be stopped if people with concealed weapons are able to respond before police.
“Gun-free zones don’t work, so you basically have to take that idea and throw it in the trash. Tech showed, sadly, in 2007 the need for people to be able to defend themselves,” said Philip Van Cleave, the president of VCDL, referring to the April 16, 2007 campus shootings.
“Things like this happen at colleges and universities in Virginia and around the country all the
time.”
Goddard has a different view.
“(Pro-gun advocates) use the shooting at Virginia Tech as justification for allowing guns on campus,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe it. I know all the survivors, I know all the family members, and none of us
think that we should arm students as a way to prevent violence. None of us. It irks me when we are used for promoting an agenda that we do not support.”
On Tuesday, a person was seen with a gun in a business building at the University of California, Berkeley. Campus police responded to the building and shot the gun holder.
Currently, possessing any firearm on a public California campus is a felony under state law.
“Look at Utah and Colorado. All these shootouts just haven’t happened there,” Smith said. “You can make all the laws and regulations you want, but someone who’s going to come onto campus and murder people is not going to care about (laws).”
And even though universities like Tech provide policies that try to protect people, Van Cleave said they don’t do the job.
“(Universities) don’t have to protect you. They’re under no legal obligation,” Van Cleave said. “And then they turn around and say you can’t protect yourself (with the right to carry a gun). I don’t know where that leaves you.”
Omar Samaha, whose sister Reema was killed on April 16, said students should not need to carry their concealed guns to class with them.
“Many of us believe in the right to protect yourself, but we don’t believe that letting students take guns to class makes things safer,” Samaha said.
But besides allowing gun carry on campus, Smith said he wants to advocate individual liberties — something he strongly believes in.
“You are taking away an individual right, and you don’t have a good enough reason to do it because unless you put a metal detector over every square inch around campus, you are never going to stop the bad guys from carrying, so why are you trying to stop the good guys?” Smith
said.
Even though more guns would likely be on campus if concealed carry was allowed, Smith said it would not make a campus more dangerous.
“It certainly, at the very least, would not make campus any more dangerous, and that’s the important thing, because if you’re going to take away liberties, which I don’t really think you should ever do, you should be able to prove that it’s going to be a more dangerous place,” he said.
Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, Va., is the only college in Virginia that allows concealed carry on campus.
It, like other state community colleges, has seen little crime over the past decade, a trend that is also likely influenced by lower levels of on-campus student activity and a lack of campus housing.