The notorious rabble rousers who make up the Boise State University chapter of Young Americans for Liberty recently invited well-known agitator and rhetorical bomb-thrower Dick Heller to the Idaho campus to speak on, you guessed it, gun rights. The prospect of young impressionable ears being assaulted with the blandishments of a Second Amendment supporter was enough to make the school’s administration set aside more pressing academic concerns, clutch their pearls and deal decisively with what they saw as a potential threat to campus peace and safety. So according to idahoreporter.com, the school decided at the last minute that YAL should foot the bill for some beefed up security for the event . . .
And as you’d expect, YAL thinks the $465 surcharge to hire three security guards and two off-duty constables was arbitrary and capricious. YAL VP Sherlyn Rose said,
“Boise State overstepped its bounds by charging extra security fees last minute for an event where the goal wasn’t to have an open-carry gun rally, but rather provide an educational forum for our students and community regarding a very important, historical Second Amendment Supreme Court ruling.”
The school, naturally enough, doesn’t see it that way. BSU was, they say, worried about open carriers attending the event. Maybe because it was co-sponsored by Idaho Open Carry. But according to Kathleen Tuck, a BSU spokesnoid, the added security was just SOP.
“We do charge campus groups for security when it is deemed a necessary component of an event, based on threat assessments. In this case, there was concern that a community member had been encouraging folks to open carry.”
YAL denies that anyone had encouraged open carry at the event. Anyway, as Tuck claimed, rent-a-cops are something the school regularly requires whenever they perceive the potential for a problem. Right?
BSU has yet to tell IdahoReporter.com if the school has ever charged extra security fees for other groups or events.
Yeah, YAL probably shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for the school to cut loose with that list.
[h/t instapundit.com]
There are some looking to pursue gun control with malevolent hearts, but this reaction goes to show that most anti-gunners are just frightened by anything black and evil-looking. Or, in this case, even the possibility of black, evil-looking things.
But Heller is white.
Except that the open carry people are blowing it by turning the dial to 11. Instead of showing up with AR’s,
they should have started with bolt action, wood stocks etc… You boil a frog by putting him in room temperature water, then slowly raising the heat.
The antis disdaine for the bill of rights doesn’t stop at amendment 2 they want to silence all opposition as well as disarm all opposition
Usually those who attack the 2nd Amendment will sooner or later attack the other Amendments and the Constitution. Either you believe people should be citizens, or you believe people should be serfs.
RE: arbitrary and capricious
That’s just business as usual at Kramerica Industries.
Seinfeld FTW!
As Prager has been saying for decades…..
..the university campus is the least free place in the United States.
Has anyone set up a fund to reimburse these kids?
There’s a “Donate” link on their website.
Oh gosh, my Alma Mater just continues the stupid.
It’s just that Bob Kustra is stuck on stupid when it comes to guns. He probably should have done just a bit more research on Idaho before accepting a job here. Poor man must be beside himself every day knowing that tens of thousands of people living around him own guns and there is nothing he can do about it.
Yeah, BSU Prez Kustra does seem to throw a pants-wetting hissy fit whenever someone mentions legal possession of guns. And now he is going to ask the Idaho legislature to give him an extra $1 million a year to hire armed guards on campus, because those EEEVIL people who have enhanced concealed weapons licenses can carry on campus, starting July 1st. I have to wonder why he didn’t see a need for arming the campus cops when the only ones who carried concealed on campus were the criminals?
Kustra appears to be running for the Chair of the Union of Concerned Muggers and Rapists.
Ironically an open carry event would be the safest students activity ever. Deal with it young folks. Many leftwing colleges would bar this hero. Ironically…
I’m surprised he was allowed to do it.
Hmm. Ironically just because they let him speak there (And you guys mentioned them) I will now look at there grad programs lol. Or anyone know of good progun grad schools (physics) I don’t care to pack in class but I use progun as a good litmus test…..
Lurker,
I honestly don’t think there is any such thing as a pro-gun college or university. Your best bet is to go to a public college or university in Utah where there are absolutely no restrictions for licensed concealed carriers.
This happened because of all the lefties fleeing California because of it’s draconian out of control capriciousness….and instituting same in other western states.
Umm, no. The educational system is full of ivory tower intellectuals who are staunchly democrat who have no connection California. My father-in-law was born and raised in Ohio, where his father was a professor at Miami, a Brown undergrad, post-grad at Iowa, followed eventually by a long career at Johns Hopkins. He was a biostatistician, a WWII Rainbow Division veteran, and a life-long Democrat. His wife, who he met at Brown, was a life-long Democrat, although she was raised by staunchly Republican parents.
Almost any university you mention, other than the military schools, on the East Coast are overwhelmingly liberal. I personally blame it on the education system, not California. California did not invent the Democratic Party, liberalism, socialism, or FDR.
Actually, West Point has some “unusual” instructors, as does the Naval Academy and the National Defense University.
Boise State, where the football field is blue and the administration is red.
This and the Maryland High School Internet Censorship. Looks like our education systems are unified in limiting information that might twist little minds in a right direction. FORWARD!
They allowed the event, at a public university. Let’s accept that win, most any other public university would have shut it down immediately. I’ll take a few hundred dollar security fee for that win.
If I were a member of the YAL, I would tell the campus president WE WILL NOT PAY A PENNY until they post the names of the ALL the organizations and their surcharges.
NOT A PENNY!