A student movement to allow the carrying of concealed weapons on college campuses has spread to five colleges in Kansas. And, a sixth chapter is expected to form as soon as next week at Johnson County Community College, the state’s largest community college.

The movement sprang up in the wake of an incident last April in which a student at Virginia Tech University massacred 32 fellow students before taking his own life. The day after the incident, a student at the University of North Texas, using the social networking website Facebook, began a campaign to rally support for concealed carry on campuses.

Thus was Students for Concealed Carry born. The group now has more than 25,000 members at 300 college chapters in 44 states.

SCC’s state coordinator, Ryan Willcott, a freshmen majoring in business management at Kansas State University, said the orgnaization now has chapters at K-State, the University of Kansas, Washburn University and Washburn Law School. A sixth chapter is now forming at Johnson County Community College.

He said the goal of students is to persuade college administrators to allow students or staff members who qualify for a concealed carry permit to carry firearms on campus.

The original concealed carry bill that emerged in Kansas after much legislative wrangling in 2006 forbade the carrying of guns on campuses and in other specific locations. However, an amendment passed in 2007 gave property owners the discretion to prohibit weapons in buildings, if state-approved signage was posted.

All Regents institutions in Kansas chose to post the signs. However, the prohibition applies only to buildings; it doesn’t cover the carrying of concealed weapons in other areas, such as parking lots adjacent to college buildings. However, Regents institutions chose to adapt administrative policies to discourage the carrying of weapons, even outside of buildings.

“Our goal is to push universities to take the signs down,” Willcott said.

Willcott said Students for Concealed Carry plans to appeal directly to the Board of Regents, possibly later this summer.

“You have to get on their agenda ahead of time, and it takes a few months, but we hope by August or September we can make a presentation to them,” Willcott said.

Wilcott said he’s not a “gunslinging redneck” or even a gun enthusiast.

The issue, he said, is all about student security. It’s silly, he said, for college administrators to believe that a campus no gun sign would deter a determined criminal or lunatic with bad intentions from carrying a weapon on campus.

“The signs might deter a law-abiding citizen, but it wouldn’t have done anything to protect the students who died at Virginia Tech,” he said.

Willcott said representatives of the group had met with Kansas legislators to discuss possible legislative action to allow concealed carry by permit-holders on college campuses. Fifteen other states are considering such legislation, but it’s too late in the legislative session in Kansas for any new legislation to be introduced.

The movement has gotten a mixed reception on campuses, Wilcott said. SCC sponsored an empty holster protest at college campuses throughout the nation from April 21 through 25 during which supporters of concealed carry wore empty holsters while going about their normal activities on campus.

“We heard a lot of support, but I also got my share of dirty looks,” he said.

He said students have been left defenseless if confronted by a gunman on campus, and measures being enacted at colleges to keep students safe are deficient.

He cited as an example K-State's text-messaging system which allows administrators to issue a text message to all students in the event of criminal activity (or dangerous weather).

He said the first time the system was used, he did not get a text message at all.

“The second time, the text message was sent at 10 and I got it at 10:21. A lot can happen in 21 minutes. It just takes a few seconds to draw a weapon and start shooting,” Willcott said.

Patricia Stoneking, a member of the board of the Kansas State Rifle Association who has served as an unofficial mentor and advisor to the student group, said the students are “very intelligent and very enthusiastic.”

“We will be presenting them with a formal resolution of support at our annual meeting in June,” she said.

Stoneking said the central belief underpinning the group – that students would be defenseless if confronted by a gunman on campus – was accurate.

“When we’ve had mass shootings at campuses, they’ve always occurred in gun free zones. Those zones won’t deter a criminal. And posting no gun signs on college buildings is tantamount to posting a bullseye on that building. You’re saying this is a risk free zone for criminals and lunatics.”

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