Operation Campus Safety at Virginia Tech

The Virginia Citizen’s Defense League has announced (via email alert) its planned protest at Virginia Tech in opposition to the university’s plans to codify it’s anti-gun stance as a state regulation.

Finally – we have a date and time for Operation Campus Safety at Virginia Tech!

**Mark your calendars, this is going to be big and you’re going to want to be part of it!**

We have approval for the protest from 8 AM to 4 PM on Thursday, November 17th.  While some of us will be there early, the main protest will start at 11:30 AM and run until 4 PM.  Speakers will start at 12 Noon and continue until 1:30 PM.  We will need lots of people to carry signs, pass out literature, and answer questions.

This should be an excellent day to be on campus as it is a game day (UNC vs VT), allowing us maximum visibility.  We are also looking at having a presence in nearby Blacksburg.

The protest will be held in front of the Squires Student Center (College Ave./Otey Street side), not far from the town of Blacksburg or the VT Drillfield.

More details will follow, including parking information and possible carpooling from area localities.

A very special thanks to Eric Smith, President of the Libertarians at Virginia Tech.  The Libertarians are hosting the protest and Eric is working hard to make the protest a success, patiently working his way through the VT bureaucracy to get the event approved.

Another powerful force in bringing everything together is  John Wilburn, a VT alumni.  He has been doing all kinds of coordination behind the scenes and he, too, has made it a personal mission to make the protest a huge success.

This is a mission to save lives and that drives both Eric and John, just like it drives all of VCDL’s membership.

There is no way this would have come together so well without Eric and John!

Oh, and as if John isn’t doing enough already, besides running his own business (Hokie Real Estate, Inc.), he is a firearms instructor and will be giving away free CHP classes to two lucky attendees!

Thanks also to EMs Dave Hicks and Dave Knight, who are helping with both the VT and the Radford protests.

Radford and JMU students – come to Virginia Tech on November 17th and stand with Virginia Tech students in support of freedom and liberty.  VCDL will ask the VT students to do the same when we announce the Radford and JMU protests in the near future.

Wild horses couldn’t keep me away – see you there!

No guns? NO FUNDS!  (Remember:  Donations for Virginia Tech can be sent to Blue Ridge Community College instead. )

What is “Operation Campus Safety”? Unfortunately, I can’t find an announcement on their actual website (which they really need to redesign). But it was covered in one of their VA-ALERTS emails. (If you live in Virginia, or travel here frequently, you really should subscribe to their email alerts. There is also an RSS feed available, and an archive.)

THE PROBLEM – UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES ENDANGERING THE INNOCENT

The Board of Directors of VCDL has decided that enough is enough when it comes to the safety of the students, faculty, staff, and guests at Virginia public universities and colleges.  Higher-education “no gun” policies do not make the innocent any safer.  Instead such policies enable people like [the killer] to wantonly massacre, rape, and rob.

Those policies disarm students, faculty and staff not only on campus, but going to and from campus.  ODU, for example, is not situated in the best part of town and unarmed students pay the price.

What’s even more egregious is that concealed handgun permit holders, who are at least 21 years old, have clean records, have had training, are not illegal drug users or habitual drunkards, and carry virtually everywhere else they go, are purposely left helpless.  There simply is no excuse for that.  Just one armed permit holder in one of those classrooms under attack at Virginia Tech on that fateful day in 2007 could have stopped [the killer].

[…]

A SOLUTION – VCDL WILL BE PROTESTING AT A SCHOOL NEAR YOU!

If higher-education won’t do the right thing on their own, then VCDL and gun owners statewide need to “nudge” them onto the right path.

How do we do that?

Simple.  We hit them where it hurts – right in the wallet.  With the economy in the dumps, higher-ed is probably not getting the level of donations they are used to and we plan on squeezing them even more.

To that effect, VCDL is preparing a series of campus protests over the next few months.  We are having signs, brochures, and stickers made as I write this.  We will be on campus educating students and we will be reaching out to alumni to stop donations to the school until they change their policies, however long that takes.

[…]

I will be announcing each protest a week or so before it is held here on VA-ALERT so that we can get a good turnout at each one.  We will need people holding signs, handing out brochures, and talking to those with questions.  Someone from VCDL leadership will be interfacing with the press.

In the meantime, spread the word far and near.  When a university or college asks for money, tell them:  NO GUNS?  NO FUNDS!

Being active in politics is important. Being active in local politics is even more important. VCDL has been a driving and influential force in Virginia politics, and they deserve our support. I plan to be there if I can get away from work, even if it’s just for my lunch hour.

Campus Carry bans do nothing more than create Victim Disarmament Zones, and they must no longer be tolerated.

END OF LINE

Posted by Jake on October 26, 2011

https://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/operation-campus-safety-at-virginia-tech/