Media Interest in FIRE’s Gun-related Speech on Campus Case Still Growing

As Torch readers know, FIRE has spent the last week engaged in a massive media campaign to persuade the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) to recognize the right of student Christine Brashier to start a campus chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC). As we explained in Tuesday’s press release, the college has continued to rely on faulty understandings of its legal responsibility and on plainly unconstitutional policies to justify its actions. The administration has claimed that Brashier’s attempt to gather support for her group by passing out flyers amounted to “solicitation,” and Dean Yvonne Burns reportedly went so far as to say, "You may want to discuss this topic but the college does not, and you cannot make us."

FoxNews.com today joined a growing number of media outlets and bloggers who have weighed in on this troublesome case. The story, which was for a time the number one story on its website, explores FIRE’s case at CCAC as well as other recent gun-related cases at Tarrant County College and Central Connecticut State University. As Will explained in March, FIRE has seen a growing number of gun-related speech cases in recent months.

In addition to FIRE’s efforts to inform the media about our current case at CCAC, we have also been encouraging FIRE friends to write the CCAC administration and demand that CCAC respect the First Amendment rights of its students and faculty by revoking its unconstitutional solicitation policy and allowing Christine to start her club unhindered.