The latest victory for gun-rights advocates and Second Amendment supporters comes out of Florida. Twenty-four year old college student and mother, Alexandria Lainez, was threatened with expulsion from the University of North Florida (UNF) for keeping a firearm safely stored in her car while attending class. Lainez, has held a concealed weapons permit for three years, and is a law-abiding citizen and model student. She is merely a mother who takes her responsibility to protect herself and her child seriously.
Lainez carried her gun in her car to so that she would have access to it for self-defense purposes while traveling to and from the UNF campus. Making that commute means storing her gun in her car on UNF property while she attends class. The University of North Florida prohibits weapons on campus and threatens arrest for any violators, according to the 2011 Student Handbook. This past week, in a case brought by Lainez, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that no college or university has the authority to make such a regulation.
The Broader Issue
Perhaps one of the biggest victories out of this case is that it calls into question the powers of local governments and bodies, such as counties, cities, and even universities and libraries to restrict gun rights. Many of these bodies violate gun owner’s rights through small control ordinances that put gun owners at risk of arrest when traveling from one area to another, or while moving from place to place.
It all comes down to this, the Second Amendment: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Anything that stands in the way of that right is blatantly unconstitutional.
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