Campus police at the University of South Alabama cited a student for “engaging in activities that threaten the safety of the campus community” because he was wearing an empty holster on campus.
Yes — empty.
D. J. Parten, president of Students for Concealed Carry, and another student were wearing the empty holsters on Wednesday as a peaceful protest against campus regulations forbidding them from carrying firearms, when the cops approached them.
Video footage posted on Campus Reform shows three cops walking up to the students, demanding that they show ID, telling them that they needed permission from the university to wear empty holsters (!), and asking them for permission to search them — a request which they (lawfully) denied.
Seeing as an empty holster is not a weapon, there is nothing in school policy that states a student needs permission to wear one. When Parten pointed this out, an officer told him: “You know there’s a no-weapons policy out here, but still you want to push it.”
After some conversation between Parten (who is factually correct) and an officer (who is not), Parten is charged with violating the Student Code of Conduct by “engaging in activities that threaten the safety of the campus community.”
— Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review Online.