Allow Guns In Cars On College Campuses?

Student, Gun Rights Group Suing UNF Over Issue

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Should guns be allowed to be kept in cars parked on college campuses? A University of North Florida student and a gun rights organization say yes.

Alexandria Lainez and Florida Carry, Inc. are suing the university because Lainez wants to be able to keep her gun in the trunk of her car while on campus so she can feel safe.

Recommended Videos



That student, Alexandria Lainez, is a single mother whose attorney, Eric Friday, says UNF is violating the new state law that allows people to carry concealed weapons in public.

"She's a single mom, has a young child, and she feels like she needs the ability to protect herself and protect her child," Friday said.

Others like the UNF President John Delaney say there is no reason students should have weapons on a college campus.

"Guns and universities don't really mix well, and that's the reason the Legislature has traditionally allowed universities to prohibit them on campus," Delaney said.

Some say students having weapons on campus could prevent another massacre like the one in 2007 at Virginia Tech.

"Virginia Tech's one example, but nobody remembers Appalachian State, which was stopped by a student who had a firearm in his car and went out to his car and got it," Friday said. "People forget about the incidences like Appalachian State or Pearl, Miss., where a principal had a gun in his car off campus and stopped that shooting."

"In a Virginia Tech setting, to have students to be able to go try to shoot the shooter is a dumb idea," Delaney said. "You just don't want a bunch of people shooting. There's a protocol in how you take down an active shooter that a trained police officer has to do."

Delaney said the lawsuit is based on a technicality.

"It hinges on whether or not the definition of a post-secondary institution is a university or not. That's really what we're arguing about," Delaney said.

That will be up to a judge to decide.

Friday said the case will likely go to court in November.