Letterman style Top Ten list of Gun Safety

[tomc]

A student organization published this Letterman style Top Ten list on a recruiting flyer. The Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) at Lone Star College–Tomball, had their flyers confiscated during Lone Star College–Tomball's "club rush," and shortly afterward the group was told that their group was under investigation and probably would be suspended—if not derecognized altogether. I wonder how this will affect the Campus Carry effort?

It was a stupid list to begin with, but I'm concerned with the censorship and the reason for it.

Top Ten Gun Safety Tips

[bdickens]

[Excaliber]

Although the list was clearly dumb and not funny, the college's reaction to it has more to do with censorship and thought control on campus than any legitimate concern about safety. The contention that any mention of firearms inteferes with college operations is preposterous on its face. This is not the equivalent of yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater. Firearms issues are certainly a legitimate subject for responsible discussion, particularly in light of the recent Heller decision.

Censorship actually does interfere with the function of the school, which to achieve its goals must encourage diverse discourse rather than mandating a politically controlled line of socialist thought. Tyrannical administrators like the ones involved here should be aggressively challenged and, if necessary, sued until this nonsense stops.

[TxRVer]

Just proves the old axiom...two wrongs don't make a right.

[bdickens]

I agree with Excaliber, the school asministrators need to be sued! Enough of this PC! I'm really in the wrong line of work; if I was a multi-billionare, I would eat up my entire fortune funding lawsuits against this kind of nonsense. Colleges are supposed to be bastions of the First Amendment. The First Amendment is not there to protect safe speech, to protect reasonable speech, to protect agreeable speech, to protect only that speech that follows the proper socialist groupthink dogma. No, the First Amendment is there to protect unpopular speech, controversial speech, rude crude and tasteless speech.

I'm about ready to go back to college myself just so I can be a thorn in the side of those that run today's socialist indoctrination centers.

[Douva]

That type of top ten list is fine in the tongue-in-cheek context of a blog post or something like that, but it certainly has no place on the recruiting poster of a political organization. Oddly, the list seems to poke as much fun at the pro-gun crowd as at the anti-gun crowd, so I'm at a loss as to why a conservative group thought it would be a good recruiting tool. That type of nonsense only serves to discredit the serious efforts toward the legalization of concealed carry on college campuses, being made by groups like Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

With that said, stupidity is not just cause for censorship, and the reason given by the school as justification for its actions is patently absurd.

[KBCraig]

From the link:

On October 14, FIRE received an e-mail from Brian S. Nelson, General Counsel for the Lone Star College System. Nelson stated that any "mention of firearms and weapons" is inherently a "material interference with the operation of the school or the rights of others" because such language "brings fear and concern to students, faculty and staff." Nelson also stated that "the tragedy of Virginia Tech cannot be underestimated when it comes to speech relating to firearms—however 'satirical and humorous' the speech may be perceived by some."

[barres]

From the link:

On October 14, FIRE received an e-mail from Brian S. Nelson, General Counsel for the Lone Star College System. Nelson stated that any "mention of firearms and weapons" is inherently a "material interference with the operation of the school or the rights of others" because such language "brings fear and concern to students, faculty and staff." Nelson also stated that "the tragedy of Virginia Tech cannot be underestimated when it comes to speech relating to firearms—however 'satirical and humorous' the speech may be perceived by some."

In that case, Mr. Nelson should be fire immediately and escorted off the campus, never to return for his blatant disregard for university policy! He did, after all, mention firearms and weapons in his e-mail to FIRE.

[Andiceman]

Heck, the biggest problem is that they stole that top 10 list from the comedy/political blog IMAO.US. The author of that site, Frank J, created the list some years back for a t-shirt, which you can purchase at the site. I've been meaning to purchase one of their "celebrate diversity" t-shirts (with pictures of different types of handguns) to wear when I have to be on the UT campus.