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]