In a state where open carry isn’t all that uncommon, an entire university would appear to have gone into lockdown over what I’m guessing is someone open carrying:
There have been no reports of threats and no one on campus had been harmed, Hunt said at an afternoon news conference. Several men resembling the description of the man with the weapon were questioned but were not held, authorities said.
“No one has been hurt; no one is in a panic mode,” Braaten said.
All campus buildings had been searched by Tuesday evening and police said they still had no idea who the man with the gun is or whether he is a student.
It’s not illegal to carry a firearm, open or concealed, at a college or university in Virginia, so if the man was seen with a holstered pistol, this would appear to be an overreaction. Can’t be too safe these days though, I guess. At least that’s what the officials will say. Pretty soon we’re going to be panicking because a black cat was seen crossing someone’s path on campus. Surely a harbinger of doom.
In a way this reminds me of an incident where there was an alert, or possibly a short shutdown, of Lewis and Clark college here in Portland, soon after one of the big campus shooting incidents in recent times (I think it was the Cho incident, not sure).
Seems someone had one of those punk rock belts made of inactive ammunition, worn as a belt. So obviously the campus needed to grind to a halt, for a fashion accessory that’s something like 30 years old at this point.
Because, after all, even had it been live ammunition, it would have been horribly dangerous without a machinegun lying around to fire it.
Actually, since Ferrum College is a private college, you could be guilty of trespassing if they didn’t want people there with firearms.
Unless Virginia is different… only if they ask you to leave and you don’t.
I’ve actually tried to find an actual criteria for that in VA, and haven’t come across anything yet. The best I can tell is that they would need to prove that you knew you were violating their conditions for being on that property. If someone tells you to leave, you clearly can’t argue that you didn’t know. However, if it was a student carrying, as opposed to just some shmoe, they could potentially use that as proof. Granted, I’m not a lawyer. I just do my best to figure out the gray areas in the state to keep my butt covered.
Regardless, trespassing is only a misdemeanor charge anyway. Hardly worthy of calling in team after team of police.
When I taught high school we would have a spate of bomb scares called in when finals or mid-terms were scheduled. Some were called in just to watch the evacuation from across the street. (Those callers got caught.)
When the number of incidences like this occur, my spidey sense starts to tingle and I wonder if the police aren’t just searching for some fictitious “man with a gun.”
I want to see more than one person as the witness, preferably people unknown to one another or who haven’t talked to one another. You now what I mean?