The University of Toledo Student Government held a secret vote on February 5th which shut down a resolution brought by a group of students to repeal the concealed carry ban on campus and restore their Second Amendment rights.
The resolution was defeated in spite of a campus-wide poll (5,000 votes) which showed a majority–54 percent–of UT students supported the right to conceal and carry on campus.
“We are deeply disappointed in our Student Senate and their failed leadership,” said Patrick Richardson, the chairman of the UT College Republicans. “As a legislative body, they are supposed to represent the students and last night that clearly did not happen.”
The group of students at the University of Toledo which brought the resolution before the student government believe the members of the student government failed to uphold their duties by putting their political biases before the consensus of the students.
“When the results of the survey showed that the students were on the side of freedom and supported concealed carry on campus,” Richardson added, “the Senate decided to ignore their own survey and vote down the resolution anyways. This is a case of the legislature putting politics before principle and blatantly ignoring the wishes of the very students they claim to represent.”
Richardson isn’t the only student upset with the secret vote. Sam Bain, the state-wide College Republican Chairman, believes the secretive, back-room handling of the vote could cost students their safety.
“The student government body at the University of Toledo seems to be following the lead of Congress by turning a blind eye to the will of the people,” he said. “They may have succeeded but only at the cost of sacrificing the safety of the entire student body.”
The University of Toledo isn’t the only school taking up the gun-control debate. Last week, the University of Northwestern passed a resolution titled, “Students Support Gun Control.” The resolution created a gun control committee that will “compose an open letter to our representatives in the United States government to work together to make bipartisan movement on gun control.”
The Northwestern ASG bill was passed without taking a campus-wide poll on the issue.
Instead of listening to their student bodies–students who want to be able to defend themselves–these student governments have deeper loyalties to their political ideology.
More resolutions in support of concealed carry on campus are expected to arise in the coming months at colleges nationwide.
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