Next fall, Liberty University students with concealed handgun permits from the state can get permission from the school to keep their guns in safes in their dorm rooms.
That policy change, proposed by President Jerry Falwell and given the go-ahead with action by the university’s board of trustees last week, makes good on an announcement by Falwell to students in December that Liberty planned to change its concealed-carry policy. It is the latest of several gun control policy changes by Liberty, which has become increasingly willing to permit students, faculty and staff to carry guns on campus.
Specifically, the board of trustees passed a resolution at its on-campus meeting last week allowing Falwell to make changes to the gun policy, such as the one he proposed, at his discretion, Falwell said Tuesday.
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Falwell said he is making the adjustment to help students who have concealed-carry permits but are limited by current university rules to keeping their weapons in the glove compartments of their vehicles, which can be a 15-minute bus ride away on the growing campus.
He expects the change to affect few people, since students 21 and older are eligible for permits from the state, and not many 21-year-old students live in dorms on campus. Out of 200 or so students that live in residence halls who might be eligible, he said only about 20 have permits right now.
Falwell said the university will provide safes for students who want to keep their guns in the dorms. The policy will require students to put the guns in the safes immediately upon entering the dorm and keep them there while they are inside. He said in an email Tuesday night that currently the plan is for the university to provide the safes in the students’ dorm rooms, although “that could change in the future.”
Enforcement of the policy, Falwell said, "will be determined by the deans this summer. "
Liberty became the only Lynchburg-area college to allow concealed weapons on campus — and one of the most gun-friendly campuses in Virginia— when it lifted a ban on concealed weapons outdoors on campus in 2011.
“It was because of what happened just an hour and a half up the road at Virginia Tech,” Falwell told students during a convocation on Dec. 9, 2015, explaining why he’d asked the LU board to make the change in 2011. “More than 30 innocent students and facility were just murdered viciously and none of them had the ability to protect themselves.
“From the day that happened, I thought we needed to do something here at Liberty.”
In 2013, Liberty changed the policy again to allow concealed weapons in all facilities except residence halls. The rule provides that students who hold a valid concealed weapons permit from the state and are approved by the Liberty University Police Department can carry on all school property and in all school buildings except the residence halls.
During a university convocation on Dec. 4, Falwell urged students to arm themselves in the wake of mass shooting in San Bernardino, California two days earlier that left 14 dead and 21 wounded. The next week, more than 200 students and staff turned out for one of the school’s free concealed-carry class on campus.
Tobi Walsh contributed to this story.