Students carry concealed weapons in response to U-District crime

By Lexie Krell, The Daily of the University of Washington

UW senior Stanley Luong has a concealed-pistol permit and carries a handgun.

The scar on the forehead of Stanley Luong remains as evidence of the pistol whipping he received during the strong-arm robbery of his residence in the U-District last year. He has also been robbed on four different occasions.

Luong’s personal experience with robbery and crime in the U-District led him to create the Facebook group “University of Washington Campus Vigilantes,” with the intent to patrol the Ave with other students who had also obtained concealed-pistol permits.

“After something like that happens to you, you get really paranoid … and having a gun helps you move on,” Luong said. “You feel safer … like you’re in control of the situation or have some control if something happens.”

The group had about 15 members join early this month before it was removed by site administrators only 48 hours after its creation due to “a violation of terms.” Even though the group no longer exists, students are continuing to carry concealed weapons in the U-District, citing a need to protect themselves amid what they feel has been an increased level of crime in the U-District during the past years. The UW Police Department (UWPD) has sent notification of 10 assaults and robberies in just the past two months.

“The police will never be there,” Luong said. “It will take them at least, like, three or four minutes before they can get there, and by that time, the robbers are gone. It’s all about taking the law into your own hands and doing the things the police aren’t doing.”

John Vinson, chief of UWPD encourages students to call 911 first in the case of an emergency.

“I would not advocate the student utilizing a weapon without allowing law enforcement to respond to the situation,” Vinson said. “The response time should be relatively quick; I would not advocate them taking the law into their own hands.”

Some students, however, disagree.

Senior Luis Garcia, a concealed-pistol-permit holder and member of the former Facebook group, said that he contacted authorities after being robbed on Greek Row in August 2008 and waited 20 minutes for an officer to respond.

“I ended up getting the run around over the phone,” Garcia said. “There [seemed] to be a communication issue between the UWPD and the SPD as to whose jurisdiction the Greek system [was] in.”

Garcia said that getting the knowledge to obtain a permit and learning the proper safety procedures associated with the responsibility of concealed-weapon permits would both be benefits of creating a student organization for students who carry concealed weapons.

“As of now, it’s just an idea, but I believe that it has all the necessary components to become a large student organization,” Garcia said. “If they go about it in a legal manner … there’s no reason that anyone should hesitate about getting this permit if they are educated about it.”

When asked about the prohibition of weapons on campus, Luong said he cannot encourage students with permits to carry guns on campus, but he feels that a number of people do.

“I definitely believe that [there are] a lot of people who carry on campus,” Luong said. “People are carrying because … they want to have the responsibility. They like being in control of the situation if something happened.”

Vinson said that the Washington Administrative Code prohibits the possession or use of weapons on campus.

The UW College Republicans held an event calling for concealed carry to be allowed on campus last year. The organization’s president, Justin Bryant, who also holds a concealed pistol permit, said that students with the proper training who carry concealed weapons make the U-District safer.

“Whenever I’m going through high-traffic areas late at night, I carry to protect myself from all the robbers,” Garcia said. “I’ve been jumped twice in the U-District; I think that it’s good for students to be able to protect themselves.”