Outcry Over Handgun Prizes at Oregon University
8 years ago
23 Nov
A University of Oregon libertarian group has caused controversy after offering up handguns as prizes for the second year running at an annual poker event.
The Young Americans for Liberty asked student bodies to help fund their event, due to be held last night in the Erb Memorial Union Ballroom, and have appealed the decision which saw their funding request rejected by a vote of 11-5, with two abstentions.
The tournament – the Liberty Poker Night Texas Hold ’Em event – has received donations of a .40 S&W Sig Sauer handgun, a Weatherby Vanguard 243 rifle with a Simmons scope 3.5-10/40 and a Bersa Thunder handgun from various local gunshops.
However, student officers have refused to either fund the event or allow it to be promoted through fliers in their dorm accommodation. An appeal against the student bodies’ decision was also rejected on Wednesday.
The President of the Young Americans for Liberty’s UO chapter, Thomas Tullis, explained to the student government officials that "his group organized the event to promote discussion and to challenge people’s ways of thinking".
Student senator, Zach Lusby, disagreed with Tullis’ argument, pointing out in an earlier debate that:
If you were really serious about this, you would hold a panel, not a poker night that gives out weapons.”
Tobin Klinger claimed in an e-mail that the Associated Students’ second vote on Wednesday was taken with the knowledge that the event had already been funded by other sources. “Such grounds would appear to be content neutral and consistent with UO policies,” he said in an email.
The separate funding came from the international Students For Liberty, according to Tullis, but now the national Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, has asked the University of Oregon President Michael Schill to reverse both decisions, based they claim on “the Young Americans for Liberty’s constitutional right to a content-neutral decision from student government, and on its First Amendment right to communicate with students about the provocative event”.
A University of Oregon spokesman also pointed out that the rejection of the request for funds - $600 for refreshments and $350 for room and equipment rental – is in fact “content neutral,” and argued that the refusal to hang posters is consistent with UO policies.
One of the biggest problems which the student bodies have is the proximity in both distance and timing to the Umpqua Community College bloodbath; an incident where a student killed nine people and wounded nine more just over six weeks ago in Roseburg.
Student Kelly Kenoyer asked the Young Americans for Liberty group:
Are you OK with generating fear in a student body that just saw a violent shooting on a campus in our state?”.
Kenoyer also posted a note with statistics which suggest that a gun owner’s risk of dying in a suicide or homicide is increased.
The previous year’s event, also offering handguns as prizes –including a 9mm pistol and a .22 rifle - had gone ahead without issue. Funding was given by the OU Associated Students with ‘minimal opposition’.
Tullis said that:
We were kind of surprised last year how supportive the campus community was.”
The issue of the posters not being allowed on university property is also under attack. The poster for the event in question shows images of a gun and a rifle with a large photo of a card hand which has three bullet holes through the aces of hearts, diamonds and spades. Housing officials say that advertising which encourages anything prohibited by the Conduct Code, such as possession of guns, is automatically disallowed.
Klinger said that:
Organisers were made well aware that if their poster promoted an outcome where a student could have a gun on campus, it would not be possible to post the posters in the residence halls because it is in direct conflict with university policy.”
The current Oregon University debate also has underlying issues around the status of concealed and open-carry guns on campus, as the University policy bans firearms, whereas a 2011 Oregon appeals court ruling stated that universities did not have the power to prevent gun owners bringing their weapons on campus.
Oregon University’s Student Conduct Code prohibits “the possession, use or threatened use of any weapon or ammunition, unless expressly authorized by law or university policy” and also states that, “A concealed weapons permit does not constitute authorization.”
On Wednesday, FIRE wrote to Schill saying it would “use all the resources at our disposal” to reverse the student government and University Housing decisions, and Tullis has stated that his goal is to reverse the university policies which forbid firearms on campus claiming that they are making campuses more dangerous places.
Tullis said:
Clearly, campuses are being targeted by mass shooters.”
Young Americans for Liberty is “a spin-off of Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign” and has chapters at more than 600 campuses nationwide. The organization’s mission is to “identify, educate, train and mobilize youth activists” in support of libertarian principles.
According to Heraldnet.com:
The youth organization partners with the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity, and the Campaign for Liberty, which is, this month, raffling off a Colt AR-15 rifle engraved with Ron Paul’s signature.”
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