I'll be honest, I don't really see the bill getting anywhere in the state house. If it was started in the senate, it may have a chance but it will die in the house judiciary committee. The better way of changing the policy is petioning the school itself amend their rules. This will never be accomplished if the majority of the student body still fears firearms like some evil boogeyman.
My real goal with the dummy gun is to show how little it will affect classes, if at all. I've been wearing an empty holster for 2 semesters now (I hate unthreading it from my belt every morning) and I've only had 1 student and 1 professor even mention it and both were former military. I plan on writing an Op-Ed for the paper on the whole experiment, plus I find it an easy entrance into civil discourse. When people notice something out of place they tend to inquire about it and that allows information to be spread among the student body more easily.
Importantly, I'm doing it as my own form of civil protest. I hadn't planned on mentioning "students for concealed carry" as any part of it (I'm not formally a part of the U of L chapter) but I appreciate your input on the subject.
One good thing you could always do is try to CC a training/rubber model to emphasize that anyone can (as in those signs are not magic barriers) bring weapons in, legal or not. You and the rest of us choose not to because we are upstanding citizens and adhere to the code of conduct we agreed to.
As for convincing the administration, yah not going to happen. I had 200 signatures, made the news, 2 papers, and even got the Dean of Student Affairs attention. I showed that being active would not bring down a ton of bricks, keep you from graduating, etc. Yet here is what I have found: the Dean won't even speak to me without being an official Registered Student Organization, signatures for support or not. In order to be said RSO we need a faculty adviser. Each time I meet with someone who agrees to do so, there is silence for a week after our meeting then they tell me they can't do it because their boss might get angry. And these are tenured folks, chairs of departments, heads that have President Ramsey over for dinner at their house. UofL didn't listen to the thousands of students that walked out of class and had protest over the mandatory meal plan (basically you were forced to have money put on your student card for meals - any money you didn't use at the end of the semester the university got), they won't listen to us here because they have no repercussions for doing so. Even if we got enough students to care about gun rights to make their voices heard, out of tens of thousands that is still a minority and the administration can say that the "other half" has to be considered too. But maybe with 2 of us now we can get more signatures and support.
Just a few days until the rally! 9-2 is a long time. I'm sure there will be options to take turns getting lunch. any suggestions for nearby? anyone coming from Louisville can car-pool with me though I will be there all day
