The idea of guns on campus bothers a lot of people. To be fair, it’s not legal everywhere, which means that in some places it’s troubling for folks because those who carry on campus are breaking the law.
In other places, though, there are times when the law says you can carry or at least lock a firearm in your car, but the school says you can’t. That’s the case in Florida, apparently, where Florida State University is finding itself being sued over their anti-gun policy.
Gun rights group Florida Carry, Inc. has filed a new lawsuit against Florida State University and President John Thrasher over gun restrictions in the university’s Student Code of Conduct.
The latest suit, filed on August 27, alleges that the Student Code of Conduct violates state gun laws by forbidding students and others on campus from keeping certain types of guns in their vehicles.
This isn’t the first time Florida Carry has taken FSU to court. Back in September 2015, the group filed suit against the university over a policy banning people from keeping guns locked in their cars during football games and while on campus.
Just one day after the 2015 lawsuit was filed, FSU announced that permitted gun owners would be allowed to keep guns locked in parked cars.
The problem is that Florida Carry argues that the policy change didn’t go far enough. And, from what it says, it may be right.
You see, FSU seems to ban ammunition on school grounds. Oh, you can have the gun, but all it can be good for is a paperweight or a club. Without ammunition, guns are useless, but that’s irrelevant to the folks at FSU. Frankly, this smacks of rules-lawyering to me. State law says they can’t keep guns off campus, so they decide to ban ammo because it’s not specifically mentioned.
I think they’re going to find this one won’t fly.
Additionally, the policy also bans unconcealed firearms, which is also problematic. Oh, it’s easy to say that you shouldn’t leave a firearm unconcealed in your car, but then I’d have to point out that a long gun in a gun rack is a Southern tradition. The law itself doesn’t require that such firearms be concealed, which is part of Florida Carry’s issue. I happen to agree with them. Especially since stealing a long gun is a riskier proposition than stealing a handgun in the first place.
FSU will hopefully fold on this as they did in 2015, but if not, it’ll have to defend this nonsense in court. That’s not nearly as much fun as it sounds.
However, it’s illuminating for the rest of us.
While anti-gunners continue to prattle on about “loopholes” like not requiring universal background checks, these are the kinds of games their side plays all the time. The law tells them to do something, so they try to play games and wiggle through any cracks they can find. Frankly, they have no reason to complain when we do things in full compliance with the law.
But, then again, these are anti-gunners we’re talking about. If not for double standards, they’d have no standards at all.
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