Campus firearms bans and ROTC

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Colt46

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Seems a little odd that most college campuses have bans on firearms and yet ROTC cadets routinely carry military arms to and from and even on campus. Are they demilled? I've done no research on this, but it seems like there is a slight problem with firearms policies across the country on this. What am I missing?
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you are missing the fine print. Most of the bans have clauses regarding recognized clubs and university permission.
 
In 1995ish we carried M16A1's and M60's. We signed a contract to join the Military or ROTC and then the Military. The police on campus also carried firearms. We only carried them at events and we never had ammunition with them. 90% of my ROTC class was in the National Guard at the time. We did on ocassion notify the police that we would be training on campus and discharging blanks. They didn't care. I attended THE University of Mississippi.( Mississippi State) ;)
 
Junior ROTC is demilled Springfields and air rifles only....darn shame. Still technically in violation....and the Army tells 'em to stuff it.
 
What firearm ban?

And what I found, while taking the ROTC lab for fun, is that there aren't really any arms there. Every once in a while there were, but they were on loan from the local NG unit. Definitely didn't carry any around.

However, they did have a couple AR's and Ruger MKII's at the campus rifle range.
 
Most of the "firearms" ive seen the ROTC units use on campus are rubber/plastic guns that look extremely realistic. Army ROTC goes for their firearms training at the nearest National Guard training facility (Camp Blanding in the case of UF).
 
Most of the "firearms" ive seen the ROTC units use on campus are rubber/plastic guns that look extremely realistic.
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Forgot about those. They are a five foot gun, from five feet away (eh, maybe ten), they look real. Nothing functioned, though. Only thing that wasn't moulded plastic was the barrel, which was a junked out real barrel. We did run around campus with those.
 
Yep, at my school, our ROTC dept just has the Ducks and some paintball guns... none of which us non-cadet students are allowed to have on campus. The only time we got to draw real weapons ON CAMPUS was when they came to pick us up for FTX in choppers and we had to guard the landing field... but they didn't give us any ammo. ;) Pershing Rifles (military frat) is allowed to have demilled 1903's but only because we've got a connection to ROTC.
 
Our NROTC unit has M-16s and M-1s, all of which are in the custody of the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor (a senior SSGT or GYSGT). The M-16s are straight-up rubber guns, and are used only for PT purposes. The M-1s are the real thing, but AFAIK they are nonfunctional.
 
none of which us non-cadet students are allowed to have on campus. The only time we got to draw real weapons ON CAMPUS was when they came to pick us up for FTX in choppers
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Lucky. They cut out FTX for non-cadets this year, before I got to go :banghead:
 
Seems a little odd that most college campuses have bans on firearms and yet ROTC cadets routinely carry military arms to and from and even on campus. Are they demilled? I've done no research on this, but it seems like there is a slight problem with firearms policies across the country on this. What am I missing?
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Simple answer. Money. There are certain agreements a university or college must make to get a dime of federal money. Certain student information must be handed over, the option for a ROTC department (mil's choice), etc etc.

Nothing odd about it. People like money.


Military arms? I used to be an assistant instructor at a ROTC department. Our weapons were live. All they needed were ammo. We did not store them on campus, because of a lack of secure storage. Anything we wanted and didn't have, we could borrow from the local Guard units so long as we returned them functioning and clean. (Fair enough.)

SAW's, M249's, M16's, M9's, Mk 19's, M2's, you name it. All functional.

I found it slightly odd that every time I walked across campus with a belt fed machine gun, no one freaked out. Mind you, this was a REALLY liberal school too. Not wearing a uniform, just jeans and a non-descript t-shirt usually. The only real 'reaction' I got was people stopping me and begging for photos. Half and half between folks asking to stand next to me while their buddy takes a photo, or them asking to hold the weapon.



The only time I ever got a really big reaction wasn't because of MG's per se. I was standing outside the main student building smoking a cigar. Due to recent changes, no smoking in the building, so a crowd was outside having smokes. All of the sudden the building is buzzed by a Chinook with a Black Hawn on each flank. Naturally the folks jump and one of them says "What was THAT?" (Being unexpectantly buzzed by large helo's at an altitude of 75 feet does that.)

I take the cigar out of my mouth, turn to him, and say in my best hardcore voice... "My ride." Pull two SAW's out of my dufflebag, and walk off to the choppers to get a lift back to the base to return the MG's.

Great feeling, photo got published in the school newspaper of me boading the Chinook.
 
Lots of ROTC and NROTC detachments only have .22 target pistols and .22 target rifles so they can participate in shooting competitions. Various kinds of competitive shooting events are still recognized intercollegiate sports, mostly 50 ft bullseye pistol and 3 position rifle matches.
 
I take the cigar out of my mouth, turn to him, and say in my best hardcore voice... "My ride." Pull two SAW's out of my dufflebag, and walk off to the choppers to get a lift back to the base to return the MG's.
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Sounds like a scene straight out of the ending of a hard core war movie! :p You sir, get 100 cool factor points just for doing that, even if it was years ago. ;)
 
At UC Davis back in the early 90s, the ROTC department also ran the school rifle and pistol teams, and thus had custody of the traget rifles and pistols (all .22s, kept in a small arms room at the small range on campus.)

The only time we had actually military weapons (M16s, M60s) was for FTXs, and we borrowed them from a local NG unit, but they were stored on campus, in a arms room at the range, immediately before and after the FTX.
 
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