Friends,
On Thursday last week I attended the University of Nevada, Reno College Republicans and College Democrats debate on the 2nd Amendment. I was blown away by the caliber of our young people and their discussion of such a passionate topic.
As part of my visit to the UNR campus, I also wanted to carry my concealed firearm for my own security. This has been a very important issue to me this year, and I wanted to experience first hand the system that the school put in place to deal with these requests.
I submitted my request to UNR President Marc Johnson's office on April 18th, outlining my concerns about my safety and requesting to carry my firearm on campus, per university policy. University staff followed up with some specific questions before making their decision. On April 24th I received notification that I had been given conditional approval - I would be allowed to stow my firearm in my vehicle, and I would be given a police officer for the evening.
I was assigned a very nice escort, and we had a great time attending the debate together; however, I couldn't help but think about how valuable this law enforcement officer's time is for the students she should have been out protecting. Rather than allow me to protect myself IF a situation was to arise, University leadership decided to authorize the officer's time at taxpayer's expense.
I appreciated the opportunity to meet one of UNR's great police officers, but there is no way this can be the solution to protecting our students on campus. My companion was wonderful, but her presence created the distraction students told us they didn't want on campus. Instead, I could have concealed my firearm, and no one would have noticed.
Thank you so much to the UNR students for a great presentation and for allowing me to be part of your evening. And thank you to President Johnson for showing me that there is still a need to allow students to carry concealed.
I look forward to carrying forward the ideas and concerns from the students who spoke.
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