Virginia Tech blocks plans of gun-control group

[Hazcat]

Brady Campaign won't get permit for event on April 16
 
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008 - 12:20 AM Updated: 12:51 AM
 
By REX BOWMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Virginia Tech said yesterday that it will not allow a national gun-control advocacy group to hold a campus demonstration on April 16 while the school commemorates last year's massacre.

Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said neither the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence nor the co-sponsor of the planned demonstration, ProtestEasyGuns.com, had applied for an assembly permit, and even if they had, Tech only issues permits to student groups.

Tech's position threw the Brady Campaign's plans into disarray yesterday: The noon demonstration at Tech was supposed to be the centerpiece of a nationwide series of events on April 16 in more than 70 cities and towns.

"I think we'll have to figure out what's going on," said Brady Campaign spokesman Doug Pennington. He added that students and friends of last year's shooting victims are among those who want to participate in the demonstration, "so, I'm sure where there's a will, there's a way without breaking any rules."

The planned demonstration at Tech called for individuals to lie down on the Drillfield in groups of 32 -- to recall the 32 victims of gunman Seung-Hui Cho -- for a few minutes. The brevity of the "lie-in" is meant to highlight how quickly a gun can be purchased in the United States. The Brady Campaign is calling on Congress to mandate background checks of buyers at gun shows.

Tech is marking the shootings on April 16 with a ceremony that begins in the morning and is expected to run past noon. The daylong memorial ends with an evening candlelight vigil.

Hincker said no student group will be given an assembly permit for the Drillfield at noon.

"We expect that the ceremony will likely cross the noon hour, and we will not be allowing other groups to interfere with the remembrance event."

Pennington said the Brady Campaign could have a new plan in place as early as today.

"It's just a matter of, if not here -- and it sounds like that's the case -- then where?"
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.

Link http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.PrintView.-content-articles-RTD-2008-04-08-0119.html

[ericire12]

The sad part about the Virginia Tech shootings is that there where several individuals in that building with concealed weapons permits that where not able to intervene because of the stupid laws that don't allow for law abiding permit holders to carry on college campuses. Several months before the shooting, their state legislature was considering lifting that ban. One of the major players that stopped the ban from being lifted was the president of Virginia Tech. He gave testimony about how much safer the campus was because they were a gun free zone and how proud they were of the fact that they were a gun free zone.