GUN BULLIES: Florida college retreats on campus gun policy, expulsion threat after justified school shooting

We told you several days ago about the story of Landrick Hamilton, the East Florida State College (EFSC) student who was attacked in a campus parking lot by a pair of thugs armed with a sawed-off pool cue. Hamilton was able to retrieve a pistol from his car and shot one of his attackers.

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While Hamilton broke no laws, the school threatened to expel him for having a gun in his car campus against school policy. They made this threat even though another state college had recently had their similar ban on guns in cars on campus defeated in court.

Gun rights group Florida Carry filed suit against EFSC Monday night, and just coincidentally on Tuesday morning, the college dropped their ban and all disciplinary threats against Hamilton:

On Monday night, the gun rights group Florida Carry announced a lawsuit against the college, claiming its ban on firearms in your personal car on school grounds is unconstitutional.

The same organization sued the University of North Florida about the same issue in December and won. The First District Court of Appeals ruled 12–3 that colleges and universities cannot regulate guns kept safely in their vehicles while on campus.

Florida law currently prevents anyone from possessing or exhibiting guns on school campuses, including university and college campuses.

That same law, however, says the automatic ban doesn’t apply to guns kept in cars. School districts had the option to adopt policies to prohibit guns in cars parked on campus. UNF attorneys tried to argue that the university falls under this exception, but that position was rejected by a majority of the court.

Eastern Florida State officials said Tuesday morning they are revising their gun ban policy to comply with the recent court ruling.

School officials said the student involved in the shooting was back to full-time status, and revisions to the gun ban policy should be complete and in place by the end of the week.

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It’s interesting how the threat of a costly and near-certain defeat in court can change the tune of some gun control advocates.

Let’s keep the pressure up, folks.

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