The student gun rights organization will host a debate, a speaking panel, a legislators' panel and several notable speakers. SCCC anticipates an attendance of between 100 to 150 members, said SCCC Public Relations Director Katie Kasprzac.

"This meeting is to show that we're an established organization, not just a Facebook group," Kasprzac said.

Ken Stanton, Virginia Tech's SCCC campus leader, will receive an award and join a panel on campus efforts to remove gun restrictions.

SCCC claims a 32,000-person membership on over 500 campuses. The membership is 90 percent students, 10 percent faculty, parents and other concerned citizens, according to the SCCC Web site.

The Virginia Tech branch has 225 members, Stanton said.

"It's a coming out," Kasprzac said.

Formed the day following the April 16 shootings at Tech, SCCC lobbies to remove restrictions placed on students' right to carry concealed handguns on college campuses.

SCCC also seeks to educate the public about the facts of concealed carry and dispel what it calls the many myths surrounding concealed carry.

"We want to dispel the stereotypes of gun ownership," Stanton said. "When people think of gun ownership they think NRA, they think burly white Republican men who say 'there's no way you're gonna take away my guns."'

Stanton said that SCCC views concealed carry as a personal right, and respects the right to make the decision on an individual basis.

SCCC contends that gun-free zones serve no purpose other than the unilateral disarmament of the law-abiding.

SCCC works toward removal of college and university campuses from the off-limits list by concealed carry laws in most states. It also wants to see states prohibit publicly funded universities from enacting their own regulations prohibiting concealed carry.

"The concealed carry on campus movement began here at Virginia Tech, about two years before the tragedy," Stanton said.

Their work has met with some success.

"We had a Texas member address some of our concerns to the Texas Republican Party, and they made them part of their platform at the convention," Kasprzac said.

SCCC held a national protest against campus gun bans in April. Supporters wore empty holsters to protest their disarmament.

"We intentionally held the event after the anniversary," Stanton said.

Gun-control advocates held a "lie-in" to protest gun-related deaths on the anniversary.

"I think that really characterizes the two sides of this debate, it's attention versus respect," Stanton said. "With the anti-gun side, they resort to these tactics to get attention."

"We continue a campaign of respect. I've received remarks from (university spokesman) Larry Hincker and the provost commending our restraint and respect," Stanton said.

Kasprzac said that fundraising for the organization has been a priority, and that the conference had been made possible by donations from the Second Amendment Foundation.

The Second Amendment Foundation is a Bellevue, Wash.,-based  educational and legal defense organization that is — according to its mission statement — "dedicated to promoting a better understanding about our Constitutional heritage to privately own and possess firearms."

Stanton said that SCCC has recently been courted by conservative groups.

"We've had the NRA and other conservative groups knock on our door many times," Stanton said.

The conference will feature a gun-control debate between John Lott, author of "More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws" and Paul Helmke, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

The debate will be moderated by SCCC President Michael Guzman.

The conference will host a panel of legislators working to overturn on-campus gun bans to discuss present and future efforts on that front. This panel includes Oklahoma State Rep. Jason Murphy, and W. Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Concealed Weapon Hearing/Licensure Board. Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb will moderate.

A student panel including Jeremy Schwab, University of Texas at Dallas; Ken Stanton, Virginia Tech; and Andrew Dysart, George Mason University will discuss the campus concealed carry effort.

Also appearing is Alan Gura, who successfully argued the case of District of Columbia v. Heller resulting in a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., as a violation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

• Editorial: SCCC beliefs not held by majority of students