OSU Students Plan Gun Rights Events

From the Corvallis Gazette Times

A student group at Oregon State University plans to promote gun rights with activities next week, including a rally for the right of concealed handgun license holders to be armed on campus.

The rally, featuring Portland radio commentator Lars Larson, is set for 5 p.m. April 16 in the MU Quad on campus.

If the license holders carry pistols, they will violate a university rule against guns on campus.

“The idea would be to get the university to confront the issue,” said R.J. Friedman, president of the College Republicans at OSU, the group organizing what it calls “Second Amendment Week.”

Gun-rights supporters say state law gives the Legislature the sole right to regulate concealed weapons in Oregon, which creates a conflict with rules against guns on state college campuses.

At Western Oregon University in Monmouth, a student with a concealed handgun license was detained in January after he was found with a pistol and a knife. But when he was later suspended for the rest of the academic year, the action was based only on the knife and a rifle in his truck, sidestepping enforcement of the no-gun rule against a concealed handgun license holder.

At OSU, Friedman on Tuesday announced a week of activities related to the Second Amendment for Monday through Friday, April 13-17.

All week the College Republicans plan to sell raffle tickets for a rifle to be donated by the Philomath Gun Shop. The actual rifle won’t be hand for the drawing in the MU Quad at 4 p.m. April 17.

“I want to be able to finish my education,” Friedman said in reference to not wanting to violate any campus laws. The junior from Los Angeles is studying political science.

Also on April 17, the club has arranged for a free class for students of the kind required for getting a concealed handgun license, to be at 5 p.m. in Withycombe Hall.

Friedman said he planned to take the class, then apply for his license. He turned 21 last September.

Also during the week:

• Republican state Sen. Jackie Winters of Salem and Oregon Republican National Committeeman Solomon Yue are to speak at the MU Lounge at 5 p.m. Monday.

• Republican state Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas will speak at MU Room 209 at 7 p.m. Tuesday.