Firearms bans on public campuses violate Virginia law David Briggman
Briggman, of Keezletown, is a stay-at-home dad, a full-time college student and a former policeman.
In response to your April 19 editorial, "Tech's campus gun ban merits an 'S' - for sensible":
I wonder why it frequently appears that the editorial staff members of newspapers seem asleep relating to issues of statewide significance, such as the situation now evolving at Virginia Tech.
I gave Roanoke Times staff writer Kevin Miller much of the background relating to this issue, both here in Virginia and in Utah (April 16 news article, "Tech gun incident may draw legislative action").
It isn't as if Tech didn't know something like this could happen, as the Collegiate Times covered my challenge to James Madison University's weapons policy last year.
The Rockingham County Circuit Court judge decided I needed to be arrested before I could challenge its policy. I knew that wasn't going to happen, as I spoke with the campus police chief at great length, and he assured me that he didn't want to be on the losing end of a lawsuit.
I raised this issue almost three years ago when I was a student at Blue Ridge Community College, which is just outside Harrisonburg. I successfully challenged its policy, and the Virginia Office of the Attorney General concurred with my interpretation of Virginia law.
Although not a student at JMU, I have frequent occasion to drive through the campus on public streets that bisect the school. JMU's policy was that I could be arrested and my weapon seized merely for doing so.
As I did recently with Tech's president, I e-mailed Dr. Linwood Rose, JMU's president, and I asked him to use his position as president of the university to inquire of the Office of the Attorney General and request an opinion be issued from his office. He declined, stating that it wasn't in "the university's best interest." I haven't received a reply from Tech's president, and I don't expect to.
I sued. After a single hearing, the Office of the Attorney General withdrew as counsel for JMU because JMU's position had no basis in law. In fact, the "collective" weapons policies of every public college and university in Virginia go against a 2002 Attorney General's Opinion, which is available on the Web site at
http://www.oag.state.va.us/media%20center/Opinions/2002opns/02-074.htm.
While the suit was pending, legislation was introduced in the General Assembly that would have given Virginia's public colleges and universities the authority they currently lack. The legislation failed to even make it out of committee.
Clearly significant, this demonstrates that it isn't the legislative intent of the General Assembly to allow any public college or university in Virginia to self-regulate firearms.
We're talking public colleges and universities. This isn't an issue on private college campuses, as their property rights trump even our concealed handgun permits, and nobody is concerned with private colleges.
The issue, unfortunately, is firearms. I personally don't have a problem with permit holders carrying weapons around me. They've had the necessary training and have sufficient backgrounds to demonstrate to circuit court judges that they're worthy of responsibility.
The bigger question for you and for a minority of the public, who are dreadfully afraid of firearms almost anywhere and at any time, is: Why should government expect the citizenry to obey government's laws if government can't even comply with its own laws?
Tech and all other public colleges and universities in Virginia were created by acts of the General Assembly - that is, law. The General Assembly controls Tech and its board of visitors.
Your fears about alcohol are misplaced, as I believe it's still illegal to drink while you possess a concealed handgun.
Your fears about "untrained shooters" also doesn't apply to those with concealed handgun permits, as training is mandatory.
Your statement about the rarity of armed citizens defending their communities is also false and misleading. If you would check with the National Institutes of Justice, a Clinton-era grant given to two "anti-gun" researchers showed there are in excess of 1 million defensive uses of firearms annually.
Ironically, this attempt at gun control on a college campus likely would put more students at risk. According to a survey taken of 32 college campuses, including JMU and referenced on a JMU Web site (
http://orgs.jmu.edu/oneinfour/index2.html), fully 25 percent of college women over the age of 14 have survived a rape or attempted rape.
To me, a former police officer, this indicates that our college campuses are dangerous places. This illegal weapons policy keeps our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends from being able to protect themselves.
Certainly, if you choose not to protect yourself, do not impose your pacifist attitudes on others. With only 39 armed police officers at Tech, chances are someone with a concealed handgun permit is more likely to come to your aid than one of the perhaps 13 officers on duty at Tech at any given time.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary%5C23166.html*FW Note: "Why should government expect the citizenry to obey government's laws if government can't even comply with its own laws?"Why, indeed?
:?
