‘This is our Second Amendment right’: FGCU students wear empty holsters on campus

Several students at Florida Gulf Coast University wore empty gun holsters and handed out booklets of the constitution Tuesday to show their support of the Second Amendment.

“We want to get that point across that this is our Second Amendment right; we want to at all costs promote it,” said Bobby Garon, an FGCU student and member of College Republicans.

There was an open forum for people to express their opinions on the matter.

Janice Paine, a pro-gun control spouse of a faculty member, engaged in a debate with students wearing empty holsters.

“That’s the whole idea of gun regulation, is to reduce the likelihood that (A MASS SHOOTING) will happen,” Paine said.

Others, like Garon, disagree with needing more regulations.

“I do wish we could have found common ground in the fact that more gun control regulation affects law abiding citizens, not those who commit mass shootings,” Garon said.

Guns are not allowed on campus, other than by peace officers, but Garon hopes that will change in the future.

“I think as a whole people would feel a lot safer and less deaths would occur if we have bullets flying in the other direction of the shooter,” Garon said.

Paine carved notches into wooden slabs that look like empty magazines as a way to represent the victims of the Parkland school shooting. The slabs on one side, “Stick this in your holster,” and on the other, “Count the notices. Remember all that was lost.”

Paine doesn’t agree with having guns on campus, but she does “respect (the students’) right to be out here today.”

FGCU College Republicans will hold events throughout the week, including a Second Amendment panel with Republican and Democratic Groups of Lee County.

The panel will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday at the university on 10501 FGCU Blvd. S.

For more information on the events, click here.