By Gene Policinski

Nobody wants to encourage or invite another campus killing spree like the one in 2007 at Virginia Tech University, in which 32 people died and 17 were wounded.

But does that reasonable concern extend to prohibiting a rally or a flier that promotes the idea of allowing students to carry firearms on campus in self-defense?

You and I may consider the idea of armed undergraduates as either inspired or wacky — but that's not the First Amendment point, which seems to be lost on at least a few college administrators.

In Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported, Community College of Allegheny County officials stopped distribution of promotional material for the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. In Texas, AP said, Tarrant County College administrators refused to allow an "empty holster" protest on campus — even in the college's free-speech zone. A spokesman for Tarrant was quoted as saying the holster protest would be "disruptive to the campus environment."

Allowing a demonstration or a flier advocating guns on campus is not tantamount to approving gun-toting by students (or faculty and staff, for that matter). Rather, it would seem a good starting point for discussion of a serious topic — campus safety — that would permit both advocates and critics of such plans to air their views.

Editor's Note: Although this does not concern firearms, it will most definitely be of interest to many self defense-minded people who carry a firearm (and possibly also a knife).

By Jim Shepherd

...The Customs and Border Patrol is proposing revocation of an earlier interpretation of what constitutes a switchblade knife. If their revocation goes through, many of us who carry one-hand opening pocket knives might find ourselves breaking the law should we cross a state line. Interstate trafficking in switchblades is illegal.

See where this is headed?

If it weren't for the method CBP used to try and sneak this proposal through their public comment periods, it would look like another proposal from a bureaucrat. Instead, it looks like the first step toward what could be an attack on knives. Sounds silly until you realize that the United Kingdom and other similarly "enlightened" European nations have basically outlawed carried knives for any purpose.