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This week is Empty Holster Week with concealed campus.org and I organized a small group to participate at Austin College in Sherman TX. It was a pain to get it "approved" through the college; I'm glad I told them about it three weeks in advance since it was only approved last Friday!

I think my professor in my 8am class noticed but said nothing, and no classmates even batted an eye.
As I walked from class to the commons area, though, I passed a group of potential students touring the school. I've never seen so much rubber necking in my life, and I know they weren't checking out my behind.

As I type, I am sitting in the main commons area with my husband's leather hoslter for his 6" revolver on my right hip. Only a few people have even noticed in the half hour I've been here. Hubby is wearing his D-Eagle hip holster and his shoulder rig for his Taurus 92. I'll be adding my shoulder rig to my wardrobe tomorrow. We also loaned out a couple holsters to friends who wanted to participate.

This brings up two points: a large portion of the people I have encountered so far haven't even NOTICED that I am "carrying" in the open. People really aren't too observant. Of the people who were observant, most acted like my piece of leather was going to jump up and bite them.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out there since it's supposed to be going on nationwide. My college is pretty liberal but so far...the demonstration is going okay.
Look where demonstrations are going on this week: http://tinyurl.com/EHPMAP

While many folks are oblivious to the fact you have something on your hip, with today's devices like PDA's, cell phones and BlackBerry's, they will usually not notice something else there. HOWEVER, if you put a gun in that and they see the but of a Glock or a 1911 sticking out, it would draw more attention and probably calls about someone with a gun.

Thank you for leading the open holster group. It is a good way to move toward showing others that the people who would carry guns are not crazy lunatics, but others like them. Moving in small steps will do much more to have people accept the gun carrying community. Letting them take small bites of the elephant will get it consumed, where they will choke if we try to shove it down their throats.

I've gotten a few Facebook messages from other students asking to participate! Excitement abound over here...I thought the handful of students I had informed were the only ones interested!

I've made time for this empty holster demonstration because it is an important thing to me. No one else on campus seemed interested at first, and my hubby and I initially thought we would be the only two participating; it grew to include a handful of other students and I realized I had inadvertently made myself the organizer of the AC movement. I'm glad it happened because I think it's an issue that needs to be brought up. Perhaps the student paper will want to know more and we can inform more of the student body. Then again, they might just call us crazies.

In any case, I'm proud to say this is the one demonstration I've done that I didn't feel embarrassed to participate in. I felt proud. I looked people in the eye. I held my head up instead of keeping my eyes pointed to the ground. No one has asked what it's all about yet, but Campus Police sent out an email to all staff, faculty, and students to let them know there was a demonstration...and for more information, to feel free to ask the participants as they had informative brochures and are indeed quite friendly.

Thankyou for leading the charge, r.o.!

randomoutburst:

You go girl!

I'm pleasantly astonished that you were actually granted
permission by Austin College.

An open holster protest seems like it would never be granted
permission, but you did it. Good work.

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:randomoutburst:

You go girl!

I'm pleasantly astonished that you were actually granted
permission by Austin College.

An open holster protest seems like it would never be granted
permission, but you did it. Good work.

SIA

I think it was the way we approached it. I contacted Campus Police first, NOT Student Affairs. The head of Campus Police was very much in favor of it...in fact, I would say he seemed amused that we wanted to do it at AC of all places. We discussed everything with him and he gave us ideas, tips, and suggestions (like not calling it a protest, but a demonstration) for getting it through.

By the time we got to Student Affairs I had a set of guidelines and intentions, the completed informative brochure we are handing out, and a request to set up a table at lunch. Well, with everything laid out in black-and-white I can't imagine they could find a reason to deny it (though he did say we would have to find a sponsor in order to get a table at lunch...) and, really, I was surprised they approved it, too. Had he come back and said we couldn't have the demonstration, I think I would have done it anyway, to be honest.

A couple of our friends are anti-gun and/or anti-concealed carry. My husband's friend, who is a teacher's assistant in hubby's Physics class, insisted he remove both his holsters before class. Hubby explained that Campus Police and Student Affairs told him he could. It shut him up and man did he look grumpy. It put a smile on my face.

Keith B wrote:....... HOWEVER, if you put a gun in that and they see the but of a Glock or a 1911 sticking out, it would draw more attention and probably calls about someone with a gun.

not to nit-pic, but the butt end of a 1911 is a thing of artistic beauty..... should that be seen, I can imagine hoards of young
students calling the administration in awe of such wonderful form and function.

To the original poster: Nice job! Seems like it's gaining momentum, more folks joining the ranks.

After Tarrant County College lost their lawsuit a couple of weeks ago over this very thing, I'd be surprised if any colleges had the nerve to try to deny the protesters.

gemini wrote:

Keith B wrote:....... HOWEVER, if you put a gun in that and they see the but of a Glock or a 1911 sticking out, it would draw more attention and probably calls about someone with a gun.

not to nit-pic, but the butt end of a 1911 is a thing of artistic beauty..... should that be seen, I can imagine hoards of young
students calling the administration in awe of such wonderful form and function.

Well, to people on this forum, yes you are correct. Unfortunately, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there are a lot of art critics out there. Now I know why i always disagreed with the critics on what they thought were masterpieces and what they thought was junk!!

JCole wrote:After Tarrant County College lost their lawsuit a couple of weeks ago over this very thing, I'd be surprised if any colleges had the nerve to try to deny the protesters.

I provided information about that case to Student Affairs, actually. In any case, because AC is a private college, they can heavily restrict free speech without consequence. It sucks but it's a fact of life. Had they prohibited it I would have still fought it, but I sure am glad it went over smoothly and without much ado.