(Photo: Liberty.edu)
Liberty University has always been pro-Second Amendment, but next year they plan to up the ante—big time.
The school announced plans last week to build a $1 million, 13,000 square-foot gun range on their campus in Lynchburg, Va. The complex will feature indoor and outdoor areas for pistol, rifle, and shotgun practice and competition.
University president Jerry Falwell, Jr., touted the range as a logical extension of the school’s decision to allow students to carry handguns on campus. The range will give students a facility where they can earn their concealed handgun licenses and become more proficient with firearms.
Falwell told the Washington Post that the school’s pro-gun policies are meant to deter mass shooters like the one who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007. Gun-free zones attract terrorists, he said, and Liberty is set to become the least gun-free university in the country.
Students and Liberty families approve of the university’s stance on firearms, Falwell continued. Though he admitted he wasn’t sure how parents would respond, he’s received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the proposed range.
“I was a little timid about telling parents about it because I thought some would be worried,” Falwell said. “But I never got such enthusiastic applause. They don’t want to see anything happen here like at Virginia Tech, where nobody was able to fire back.”
While guns and college students might sound like a potentially dangerous combination, Brad Butler, Liberty’s planning coordinator, said the school is committed to creating a safe environment. Butler has been working with the NRA to develop best practices for safety as the school considers design and policy options.
Jason Brown, an NRA spokesman, told the Post that the organization frequently supports “institutions across the country by providing range guidelines and technical advice and grant-funding for citizens to participate in shooting sports.”
“We really do want to provide the best facilities possible in the most controlled environment possible,” Butler told WDBJ7 Tuesday.
Ultimately, Butler’s motivation for helping with the project is similar to Falwell’s. He said the range will allow students to prepare for a potential active shooter situation like the one that occurred a short 85 miles away at Virginia Tech.
“With president Falwell’s bold leadership, we’re going to avert something of that magnitude should evil like that ever come to this campus,” Butler said.
According to WDBJ7, Liberty needs a special use permit from Campbell County to build the shooting range, but planning commissioners have already recommended that the project move forward.
The Campbell County Board of Supervisors will have a final say on LU’s permit request after a public hearing, which is scheduled for Jan. 3.
Good for them! Only two schools my kids could go to if I were to (and pay for) repeat the college years again…Liberty or Hillsdale.
I think this will be a great addition to the university. Having a gun range close by will make it easier for students to learn about gun safety and using a gun properly. Great information, thanks for sharing!
AMEN, I am a Vietnam Veteran and I stand tall to protect our Nation from Violence and destruction. Rec. Jerry has it right. The Thugs and Terrorists, will do their best to intimidate and destroy our land. We The People will stand firm with the NRA. Thanks for Standing your ground to protect your university’s students.
Bob Sweitzer 173rd Airborne division US ARMY
Well thats fantastic.and should their be a rash of liberal dissent in the school im sure for every transfer leaving therell be 5 waiting to take their place and attend a university that promotes freedom, preparedness, saftey and self reliance as well as educating the mind in what can only be described as refreshing atmosphere favoring traditional american values and mindset
Every time you turn around, this organization is leading the way with forward thinking leaders! Congratulations on your great plan! It sounds like it will be an excellent facility! Just wish I lived closer to the action!
Liberty U is leading the way in yet another endeavor. Congratulations!
Great idea. It opens the door to additional curriculum that can only make this world safer. Maybe even get an armorers course so the skills can be continued down the road. Team competitions, basic safety courses, CCW courses, hunting safety… you name it. It can only be a good thing.
Liberty University is leading the way in supporting every amendment in the Bill of Rights. More power to this place of higher education and others that may follow suit.
However, it stands to reason that scores of the students at Liberty are laboring under the mental disease of liberalism. These students can be expected to mount protests against a program that will foster people who would, (gasp), seek to carry handguns in a concealed fashion. They will threaten to transfer to other colleges unless the University reverses its agenda concerning firearms.
The University must stand fast in its intentions to build such a gun range, if only to demonstrate to other colleges that threats to their operating revenue are empty gestures that the liberals are fond of employing. And if some of the liberal students transfer to other colleges? I’m thinking of the phrase “good riddance”. Anyone who denigrates and seeks to restrict the intent of a constitutional amendment should, himself, be considered a pariah. Such “citizens” are the followers of the leaders who promote the false political theory of socialism.
Liberty University shows that liberalism can be resisted in a reasonable and calm manner. One would hope that this is the beginning of a overwhelming movement to relegate the liberals to their proper place, i.e. in a impotent group that is shunned and ridiculed. If not, the dark clouds on the horizon could advance and break over all of our heads as the mortal storm of upheaval. Socialism is toxic to liberty, like arsenic, even a little bit is pernicious.