New state directives force public Pennsylvania University to allow concealed carry on campus

A public university in Pennsylvania will allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus, due to new legal directives issued by the state’s general council.

A public university in Pennsylvania will now allow students to carry concealed firearms on campus.

The change in policy at Kuztown University was the result of the Pennsylvania Office of General Council advising “the state system that a blanket prohibition against the possession of weapons on campuses is legally unenforceable,” school spokesman Matt Santos told Campus Reform in an interview on Friday.

The new rules will still prohibit carrying guns inside of campus buildings or at athletic events but allow concealed carry elsewhere.

“From the university perspective, our president personally believes that guns have no place on campus,” said Santos. “This policy doesn’t mean we support having guns on campus, but, being a state institution, we must do what the state laws are guiding us to do.”

Santos said the campus community’s response to the change has been “mixed,” but “mostly” that of concern.

Professor Kevin Mahoney wrote in his blog, Raging Chicken Press, the new rules would turn the school into “Wild West U.”

But Robert Fallstich, sophomore and campus leader of Kutztown University Students for Concealed Carry, hailed the new policy as a “step in the right direction.”

“If criminals don’t check their guns at the door I don’t think we should have to either,” he said in an interview with Campus Reform on Friday.

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