Santa Fe College: Campus Police Threaten Censorship of 'Empty Holster' Protest

On January 9, at a meeting of Santa Fe's Student Government Senate, Young Americans for Liberty representative Adam Edwards announced an empty holster protest on the Santa Fe campus. Empty holster protests, in which students wear empty gun holsters to symbolically protest laws prohibiting students from carrying concealed handguns on campus, have been held peacefully and without incident on dozens of campuses in recent years and constitute protected political expression. (FIRE takes no position on the carrying of concealed weapons on campus.) Upon learning of YAL's planned protest, Santa Fe College requested that YAL meet with him and the college's Chief of Police to discuss the event and signaled strong opposition to the protest.

FIRE wrote to Santa Fe College President Jackson N. Sasser on January 30, making clear that YAL's empty holster protest, as an act of symbolic political expression, was fully protected by the First Amendment.