Some Tarrant County College students wanted to wear empty gun holsters to school because they wanted the right to carry concealed handguns on campus - with a license. A Young Conservatives student group at Lone Star College's Tomball campus wanted to hand out a tongue-in-cheek "Top-Ten Gun Safety Tips." At both schools, administrators told the groups to stop or risk campus sanctions.
O'Neil: "They're unusual in several respects. But most especially because they involve attempts to discuss in a perhaps insensitive, but basically humorous fashion the issue of guns on campus."
That's Bob O'Neil, the director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. The Center gave annual "Muzzle Awards" to both schools.
O'Neil: "In both cases, we would observe this was not a high level of sensitivity. It's certainly not the issue you want people joking about. There's nothing funny about Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois."
O'Neil says the issue is all about the right to protest. A Tarrant County College spokesman didn't want to be recorded for broadcast, but he told me the issue for the college was campus safety. No one would know for sure whether the gun holsters were empty or not. Lone Star College wasn't able to make anyone available to repond. State law prohibits guns on any college campus in Texas, even for concealed weapons license holders.
Ian Crawford, KUT News.
