Students seek right to carry weapons

Christine Brashier, a freshman at the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, said a dean recently told her she had to stop distributing fliers for the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which has chapters at many colleges, and to destroy the pamphlets she had designed.

"I won't be forced into silence. I just wanted to start a student organization. I didn't think it was going to get this much attention," Brashier said. "It only got this attention because they stopped me. People don't like to hear about suppression of free speech."

Brashier is licensed to carry a concealed firearm but doesn't take it to school because her school, like most colleges and universities nationwide, does not allow weapons on campus. Some states explicitly ban students from carrying weapons on campus, while others - such as Pennsylvania - allow the schools to set policy.

But since April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University, killing 32 people and injuring 17 before turning the gun on himself, more students have been advocating for the right to carry guns on campus, and state lawmakers have been tackling the issue as well.

As a result, more universities and colleges have suppressed the rights of students to organize, said Robert Shibley, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit following the cases and writing letters protesting them.

The foundation has not taken any cases to court, but Shibley said its has not ruled that out. Its philosophy is to work with the universities to get them to independently change their policies.

In the case of Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Shibley said he would not comment on whether the group would sue. But it's "always an option when constitutional rights are violated," he said.

In Tarrant County, Texas, students have been trying to hold an "empty holster" demonstration in the college's designated "Free Speech" zone. The college has repeatedly refused to allow the protest, though it has taken place at other campuses nationwide.

"That case is ongoing. They have not relented," Shibley said.

College spokeswoman Donna Darovich said students are permitted to voice their opinions in the "Free Speech" zone but will not be allowed to carry empty holsters anywhere on campus.

"We believe that it would be disruptive to the campus environment for people to be walking around with gun holsters," Darovich said.

However, Central Connecticut State University in New Britain allowed a gun holster protest on its campus in April, a month after the school was mired in publicity because a student was questioned by police after he gave a class presentation on gun rights that made a professor uncomfortable.