ODU protest draws many in guns-on-campus debate

NORFOLK

Pro- and anti-gun demonstrators squared off Tuesday at Old Dominion University, which is moving to tighten its rules restricting guns on campus.

The two groups faced each other from opposite sites of Kaufman Mall outside Webb University Center.

The gun-rights group, organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League and the ODU College Republicans, wore stickers saying, "Guns save lives" and "No guns? No funds," encouraging gun-rights advocates to withhold donations to ODU if it tightens restrictions. Several of the demonstrators carried holstered pistols.

The gun-control group, organized by the Virginia Center for Public Safety and the ODU Young Democrats, held signs saying, "No guns on campus" and chanted, "Books, not bullets."

Over the course of the afternoon, several dozen people joined each side. There were a few heated discussions, but for the most part the two groups kept their distance from each other.

ODU administrators have drafted a regulation for consideration by the university's governing Board of Visitors at its December meeting that would ban guns - including those carried by concealed-weapon permit holders - from campus buildings and sports events.

Like most Virginia state colleges and universities, ODU already has a policy banning guns from campus. But Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ruled in a July opinion that such policies do not apply to holders of concealed-weapon permits.

In order to ban those guns, Cuccinelli said, universities would have to enact a regulation, which has the force of law.

Tuesday's demonstrations were the first in a series planned over the next few weeks as other Virginia universities consider similar regulations.

A pro-gun demonstration is scheduled for Nov. 17 at Virginia Tech. Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun-rights group, said the group also plans to demonstrate at the University of Virginia and George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison and Radford universities.

T.J. Mercier, an ODU senior who joined the gun-rights demonstration, said the university's proposed regulation would create a "victim disarmament zone."

"It wouldn't disarm criminals," he said. "It would disarm people who are trying to protect themselves."

Four of the gun-control demonstrators were family members of students killed or wounded in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, in which 32 people were killed by a gunman, who then killed himself.

Andrew Goddard, president of the gun-control group, is the father of Colin Goddard, who was wounded in the Tech massacre. He said the group plans to continue shadowing the gun-rights demonstrators at other Virginia campuses.

"The message that there weren't enough guns on the Virginia Tech campus that day is crazy," Goddard said. "I'd say there were two too many."

Seung-Hui Cho, the Tech gunman, was armed with two semi-automatic handguns.

Jeanette Richardson of Newport News said she joined the gun-control demonstration because that's what her son, Patrick, would have wanted.

Patrick Richardson was shot dead in front of their house while he was home from college on Christmas break in 2004. He had become a gun-control activist after watching the movie "Bowling for Columbine," about the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999, his mother said.

"He said, 'Mom, this gun situation is out of control,' " she said. " 'Kids need to know that this is the No. 1 way they die.' "

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com