Now that I have my diploma...My story about guns on campus...

[MontCo Alex]

Ok guys, So I just graduated from St. Josephs University yesterday, I can now tell you my story....

I got a Ruger LCP back in September '08, carried it off campus about 3 times a week I'd say (I had my LTCF before I bought the gun), but made the decision NOT to carry on campus at all. It wasn't worth it being a senior. I kept it in my car which I parked off campus. This was fine as I usually slept at my girlfriends (now ex) place where I basically had to park off campus to not get a campus ticket.

At the end of last semester (early December) we broke up and I stayed at my on campus apartment then. The problem arose that at my apartment the only easy place to park was owned by the school and behind the building. Technically I was supposed to be parking there all along, but did only like 5 times before.

For a while I would leave my LCP at a close friends house across the street but this got annoying, and I didn't feel comfortable with it (his roommate). So I just locked it in my glove box, and figured there is no way the school would find out as a fact that I had it....I was wrong, somewhat. (to be clear the school handbook doesn't say anything about weapons in cars, only in dorms/campus housing. A separate online thing called 'community standards' says something about weapons and any 'dangerous devices', but to be fair that is pretty much everything, and its pretty vague in total.)

Well anyway this wasn't much of a problem, for a while as no one but myself and some of my friends knew it was there or that I carried one at all. Sometimes they would bring it up, like say 'Hey Alex, where is your gun?" at a bar or something, but no one said anything in a bad situation (like in the cafeteria, which would have been really bad). I had written a few pro 2A articles for the school newspaper, so it was at least public knowledge that I support gun rights, if not assumed that I owned them.

Eventually though I was warned by an involved friend, that the school *might* know that I keep a gun in my car legally... and that I should probably not keep it in my car if I continue to park on campus. Apparently an administrator we both know asked him seemingly casually about guns on campus in a way that suggested the administrator knew about it. The admin didn't mention my name, but it was somewhat obvious.

So I drove home the next day and left my gun there for the remainder of the semester, this was about a month ago.

Another weird thing happened less than a week before this. I was at a small party with other 21 year olds and Phily PD came. I helped the owner tell them they can't come in and that we are all 21. They didn't like this and threw me in a paddy wagon for about 15 min while they illegally entered his house. I wasn't charged with anything but the school got the report and said that I was 'disrespectful'. When I went to talk about it with the lady it charge we had a pleasant conversation about the school and alcohol policy. Strangely in like a half hour she mentioned guns 3 times, casually like
"well sometimes it starts with someone shooting off a pellet gun and then a year later they get in trouble for something else like drugs." etc, but it was odd.

She also said that if they get a complaint/tip/concern sometimes they will meet with the students teachers, advisers, mentors etc. and talk about the situation and decide what to do based on that, many times not even involving the student at all. She gave an example of a student who drinks who is missing a lot of work/class, but hasn't gotten into trouble with alcohol or such. This got me thinking later that she was perhaps hinting that something like this had taken place with me. I got tipped off by my friend only a few days later.

Nothing became of it I guess, and I'm really glad. It could have been a lot worse, they could have called the police to search my car or such. This would have been interesting because I have a LTCF so they can't search my car based on 'he has a gun in his car'. If my car was on campus at the time when they wanted to search it, it would have been very iffy (not doing anything illegal as I was not informed by management/school authority/ etc directly that I can't have a gun in my car, but I dunno what would have happened.) If they had searched it (illegally even) it would have been pretty interesting. I would have probably used the threat to make a big scene/media thing/lawsuit about it and tried to get out of getting expelled/punished since technically its legal and I kept it in my car.

In conclusion I'd like to think the administrator was attempting to warn me, and that IF the school had some sort of meeting about me they realized I wasn't a threat. The friend who told me is very involved and possibly could have been in the meeting and told them he would stop me from keeping it there, I would not be surprised. I don't really know, which is sort of creepy. I did get off for the 'disrespectful' thing too.

I'm glad I can carry everywhere now.

-Alex

[Bug44]

Well I was in the same Boat... But noone ever found out or gave me problems about it... Only my girlfriend and a few friends knew I carried, and was very Pro 2A... Plus my school is very Redneck...
Since my "Something" was locked in the glove box I figured I would be fine... I was only on campus about an hour a day...

I still have to do an internship so I kinda need to be careful about what I post on here... Dam school kicking my Rights down!

[Jon1911]

The campus thing is horrible, I hate how they're able to just trample the 2A on campuses.

Keeping it locked in your glovebox is smart though. Unless you do something stupid like tell them or open it, they'd have to violate your 4th Amendment rights to discover anything in the glovebox.

[zackattack784]

In my experience, when it comes to police, particularly college police, and college students, they try to trample ALL over our rights figuring we either don't know our rights or we're willing to bend over and grab our ankles and respect their authority.

It's mind boggling how many college students are clueless as to their rights. Good for you for sticking up for them. I'm referring to the bar incident here of course, not the carry of firearms. They may have supressed your 2a right but by god they won't take your 4a one too!

[PennsyPlinker]

In conclusion I'd like to think the administrator was attempting to warn me, -Alex

I think the technical term for this is "veiled threat". I could be wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any real nice people involved in any of this on the part of the school. Yeah, students need some guidance from time to time, but there just seems to be a lot of smothering paternalism present in some of the actions and attitudes you described.

[markheck1]

The campus thing is horrible, I hate how they're able to just trample the 2A on campuses.

Keeping it locked in your glovebox is smart though. Unless you do something stupid like tell them or open it, they'd have to violate your 4th Amendment rights to discover anything in the glovebox.

Not Quite, it depends on the school policy that you agreed to upon joining. Sometimes they say anything on their property may be subject to search and seizure.....No they don;t have the authority to make you let them search, but if you refuse....you're gone.....it's not right, but that's the way it is....

[MontCo Alex]

I think the technical term for this is "veiled threat". I could be wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any real nice people involved in any of this on the part of the school. Yeah, students need some guidance from time to time, but there just seems to be a lot of smothering paternalism present in some of the actions and attitudes you described.

Yea the paternalism is annoying. It was a lot better if I was warned than if my car was searched...I probably would not have graduated on time lol. Might even be in court.

Not Quite, it depends on the school policy that you agreed to upon joining. Sometimes they say anything on their property may be subject to search and seizure.....No they don;t have the authority to make you let them search, but if you refuse....you're gone.....it's not right, but that's the way it is....

Yes they don't have the authority to make you let them search it, but not doing so would cause a lot of problems. They also control freedom of speech this way too. It not like illegal to say something racist, but the school has kicked people out for 'harassment' or calling it a 'hate crime' (in the case of vandalism for example). They are a private institution, but still.

-Alex

[ungawa]

Congratulations on your accomplishment!

F-them, and good ridance. Very soon you will start getting phone calls that will continue for the rest of your life. The school will be asking you for money. Ask them if they still require students to be helpless victims.

[MontCo Alex]

Congratulations on your accomplishment!

F-them, and good ridance. Very soon you will start getting phone calls that will continue for the rest of your life. The school will be asking you for money. Ask them if they still require students to be helpless victims.

Ironically before I even graduated they were asking us all for $20.09 as our 'senior gift'. I was like, are you fucking serious I just gave you like almost 100k over the last four years and you ticket my car with fake tickets then withheld grades till I paid them... Unlikely they are getting money from me.

-Alex

[bgeddes]

"well sometimes it starts with someone shooting off a pellet gun and then a year later they get in trouble for something else like drugs."

What the?!?!?! How in the world are these two things connected? Even REMOTELY!?!?

These are the people mentoring our youth, a scary fact for sure.