Where to keep guns when staying on campus?

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A lot of sage advice here.

Look, don't bring your weapons on campus period unless it is a sanctioned event such as target shooting (which anyway those are controlled pretty strictly).

Bottomline, if you don't want to get into possible jail time and definite expulsion just realize that they have their rules. Right or wrong, it's in most every campus I know. Even knives are controlled, now while those are often overlooked, if wanted it can be used against you. If you want to live on campus, you voluntarily have chosen to accept those rules. Get your education, make good friends, and move on in life.

I like what another also said here. I lived on campus for a time during my collegiate times, and in no way would consider my area secure for storaging items I would care for being secured.

If you can, live off campus. There your privacy and rights are more in place - but there is a cost/benefit to everything.
 
natedog said:
a pretty strong preference towards Reed
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Reed? You're a masochist, aren't you?

For what it is worth, here is Reed's weapons policy. Note that unlike many universities they don't bother to mention the exclusion "except as allowed by law."

Weapons
Firearms are prohibited on the Reed College campus. Anyone found to be in possession of a firearm will be subject to the appropriate college disciplinary procedure, and the firearm will be remanded to the care of the community safety office. Ammunition, explosive devices, fireworks, weapons of any kind, and any other material or device determined by the college to pose a present or potential danger to people or property are strictly forbidden in the residence halls.

What Oregon law says is:

166.370 Possession of firearm or dangerous weapon in public building or court facility; exceptions; discharging firearm at school.

(1) Any person who intentionally possesses a loaded or unloaded firearm or any other instrument used as a dangerous weapon, while in or on a public building, shall upon conviction be guilty of a Class C felony.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to:

(f) Possession of a firearm on school property if the firearm:
(A) Is possessed by a person who is not otherwise prohibited from possessing the firearm; and
(B) Is unloaded and locked in a motor vehicle."

So, it is apparently legal under Oregon law for you to keep your firearm unloaded and locked in your car, even if it is parked on campus. Not the best solution, but legal. And no guarantee you won't still get expelled at a place like Reed and have to fight for your right, legal or not.

If you do decide to leave your weapon in a vehicle, you might want to invest in one of these:

http://www.truckvault.com/products/sports/sedan/trunkvault.asp
 
Natedog,

Do NOT store them in your car - they will get stolen. All campuses are notorious for auto theft/ break in.

Also, do NOT store them at the local campus police station. They will also get stolen, "misplaced" or taken to the range. Personal experience here.

I've always heard that its best to live on campus your freshman year to make friends and such. Any truth to that?
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Eh. I met a couple of friends in the dorms, but by and large you make friends doing what you like to do. So don't do anything simply to "make friends" if you wouldn't otherwise find it remotely interesting. Also, dorms are very noisy. I don't know what your study habits are, or your major, but don't plan on getting good grades if you live in the dorms.
 
I heartily endorse the comments as to not break the law and possibly commit a felony by bringing firearms onto a campus that bans them. If you do so, are caught and convicted, you will likely be unable to ever get a carry permit. Since you are also interested in the law, know that a felony conviction is usually sufficient cause to reject an application to be admitted to the state bar or other types of professional licensing bodies, such as a license to practice medicine, depending on the type of felony. If the college does not offer secure on-site storage, than renting a storage locker is probably the best option.

I finished undergrad and grad school before the original poster was born. :cool: If you want to be a serious student, not all of the dorms will facilitate this. I never lived in on-campus housing; having rented various houses with roommates up until my senior year, when I was able to afford my own apartment. So I would tend to have a bias towards off-campus housing, but I realize that university rules and/or finances may not permit this.

But the bottom line of my posting is to not knowingly violate the law and risk the serious legal consequences that may ensue for someone in your situation.
 
I urge you to not break the law by carrying illegally, especially not on or near any school...More important, to me at least, why start this phase of your life by making a deliberate decision to cheat and lie? Use the university to develop your moral and ethical capacity, not to destroy it. Become a better person, not worse.
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I vigorously reject the premise that legality defines ethics or morality.

Would you lie to the Third Reich? Would you cheat the Devil?

Being a moral and ethical person is ever so much more difficult than being a law-abiding one.

If you decide disobeying the law is the ethical thing to do, however, you must be prepared to accept the consequences.




As for living on campus, I agree that there are many benefits. Dormitory situations vary widely, from very decent on-campus places to live, all the way to barracks of immature, drunken slobs who will make your life a living hell.

I know -- I've lived in both.

Let your investigations involve a visit. Find out WHICH dorm the freshmen males will be herded into, then visit it on a Friday morning and a Friday night.
 
I am familiar with Reed College, having been accepted as a student there and knowing many alumni. I chose not to go there, but only since it was not very strong in my chosen major and due to the cost. Reed is famous for the rigor of its academic curriculum. I was a National Merit scholar, and at any one time, Reed has many such among its student body. It is also in a beautiful setting in metropolitan Portland.

Reed is a very strong school in many different academic areas, although it does tend to specialize in liberal arts majors. It is not all that strong in the physical sciences. Although at one time, Reed was one of the very few undergrad schools to have a working nuclear reactor on campus, for its nuclear engineering curriculum.
 
I understand that some colleges or universities still have a rifle or pistol team, and that at least some of them have facilities for securing firearms owned by students.
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Time for my MI Tech plug, that greg already threw in. If you are considering engineering of some sort (seems like you aren't), give it a thought.

What happens here is you fill out a 'Weapons Registration' form. It has your name, local address, and make/model/caliber of the weapon. Take that to the dorm's MA, she'll give you a lock. In the basement is a gun room, everyone gets their own locker. Your guns go in your locker, which you have the combo for. The only other person with the combo for your locker is the MA, and to actually open your locker without your permission involves paperwork on their part.

The only bad part is that the room remains locked, you need an RA to open the outer door for you. Usually isn't a problem, but the on-duty RA's have a habit of not being where they are supposed to be. And there really isn;t anywhere to clean guns, you gotta do that before leaving wherever you were shooting.

Try Michigan Tech, in the UP of Michigan. The Dorms have Gun Lockers. So many hunters there, and thousands of acres of Public Hunting lands!!!!
They even have an indoor shooting range, and you can rent a 22 pistol there for practice!!!
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Yep, indoor pistol range, there is a bullseye pistol club, an IDPA type club, and competition rifle team. Pistol club does rent .22 pistols, and I believe some .357 revolvers. Rifle team provides the rifles, Win 52's and Anschutz somethings. And LOTS of paper company land for shooting/hunting.


For other colleges, you gotta weigh the risks. Sure, you could probably get away with hiding a pistol somewhere in your room. BUT, if you are caught, you could be in lots of trouble. Personally, getting kicked out of college is not worth it to me to go shooting, but that is a decision only you can make.

Another thing I know a few ranges do is to provide gun lockers for a monthly fee. Maybe somewhere around there has something like that.


Oh, and dorms are great (and usually mandatory for some time). Spend a year or two there, and then get with some buddies and get a house. That is my plan.
 
Land of the free?

Heh, I always thought you guys lived in CIVILIZED[ country...
I live in campus area. Booze is allowed, ammo is limited 20 000 /apartment, guns allowed too. Actually right now I have:
AK103 in my closet
Silenced CZ Kadet pistol in my drawer, next to G17. And we have IPSC team, hunting club and organization for ex-mil types... :D
 
For a month or so, I kept a two 1989 Colt Government Model 1911s and a 1990 Colt AR-15 in my dorm room at Clemson University with about 200-300 rounds of ammo. I had a buddy with a Springfield 1911 in his room, and another guy (the son of the guy I got my AR-15 from) sometimes would have one (Springfield 1911) in his room. Did anyone else know of the firearms on our hall? Nope.......Would I do it, again?....Officially speaking...Nope, probably not. :evil:
 
You keep it in your dorm, just like everyone who isnt supposed to have drugs or alcohol does. I dont see why this would be any differnt. Bring a little safe with you and keep it in your closet.

My roomate and I had 2 refrigerators when we lived on campus, both filled with alcohol and jello shots all the time. And we were both underaged and living in a "dry" house. Which meant they were illegal. The RA's never found it because we kept the fridges in our closets and our jackets on top of them.
 
Long time reader, first time poster.

I'm currently attending Mich. Tech in Houghton, and live in one of the halls. They do have armories in the basements, but it is a pain to have to ask the RA every time you want to go shooting, and every time you get back. One of my MA's told me if I couldn't find the RA (when I got back) to just keep it in my dorm until the RA was in. I've done that on three separate occasions now, and probably have had it in my dorm a total of one week out of the six I've been here.

It wouldn't be hard at all to keep it in my dorm room all the time providing that it couldn't be seen with the door open. The RA's here don't care about things that aren't blatently obvious. If you want to get the RA's attention, you have to do something on the order of what someone a few doors down from me did (microwave a lightbulb).
 
Live off campus

Rent off campus. Don't get a downstairs apartment either, and try to find something QUIET.

Who can sleep without a SLR w/30round mag next to them?!

I think that at the University of Montana Missoula you can carry handguns in your backpack (read up on this). Pretty sure the only University where you're not a sitting duck for a madman on a shooting rampage.
 
Heh, I always thought you guys lived in CIVILIZED[ country...
I live in campus area. Booze is allowed, ammo is limited 20 000 /apartment, guns allowed too. Actually right now I have:
AK103 in my closet
Silenced CZ Kadet pistol in my drawer, next to G17. And we have IPSC team, hunting club and organization for ex-mil types...
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Is the ammo limit to keep the upper-story floors from collapsing?

Anyway, regarding college, I would say live off-campus if you have the money, having done both for a number of years. The only advantage to living on-campus is that on Friday or Saturday night, you can wander around asking everyone you know "So what are you doing tonight" until you hear something that sounds good, and the drunk bus will bring you home for free. Also it's really convenient to go home if you happen to be partying in someone else's room.

A better way to make friends is to join clubs. It's like when you were a little kid... at first, your friends were just whoever you lived next to but only because you didn't know any better, and once you got older, you started hanging out with people you really liked. I don't know why you'd want to go back once you get to college.

Ditto on what everyone else said about the problems of keeping guns or anything else in college. At my school there were a ton of break-ins over winter break one year. They even stole people's pillowcases to put their loot into. There was no forced entry in this incident, and about 6 rooms got hit.

marklbucla, in California you are not allowed to possess any guns in your car unless you are allowed to carry concealed (CA is a gun-unfriendly shall-issue state), or you are going to/coming from a place where it's legal to shoot.
 
Land of the free?

Heh, I always thought you guys lived in CIVILIZED[ country...
I live in campus area. Booze is allowed, ammo is limited 20 000 /apartment, guns allowed too. Actually right now I have:
AK103 in my closet
Silenced CZ Kadet pistol in my drawer, next to G17. And we have IPSC team, hunting club and organization for ex-mil types...
Click to expand...

I wish I could disagree, but I can't. You are witnessing a great nation in its death throws. Pay attention. Don't allow it to happen in your country.
 
Another thing to think about if you decide to keep it in your room. Your room is not necessarialy a private place. Even if you keep to yourself and don't socialize much, chances are that your roommate will.

Most everyone around here constantly has people in and out of their rooms. Many times, people you don't know. People drift in and out, your roommate may have buddies over, people looking for help with work, people wanting to do stuff. That is what concerns me the most with leaving them in a room, just the amount of people that are in and out every day, especially the ones I don't know.

And if you do not know your roommate(s), it is probably not a good idea, at least until you do get to know them. First off, you can't keep track of your stuff when they are there and you aren't. And they have access to anything in the room, just like you. Second, if you are ever caught, you could potentially drag them into trouble too. Third, and probably the most likely, if they know you have a gun (probably won't be a secret forever), and things don't end up going so well between you two, it is one more thing you have to worry about, them turning you in or claiming you threatened them.

8balls, you can do that in the dorms of Finland?
 
Jep, dorms are just like any other apartment. Doesnt matter whether its on/off-campus... 20k limit= in case of fire/accidents.
 
I can't remember the MA's name, but I know it was the one who lives closer to the laundromat in our building. I'm in Mcnair hall.

My roomies socializing doesn't bother me. When I have it in my dorm room, I keep my piece locked up with the rest of my valubles (ammunition, DVD collection etc).

You just might know me jef. PM me if you would please.
 
While I was in college I kept most of my firearms at my parents house. They lived within a 2 hour drive, so I could go home and shoot them when I wanted for the most part.

I did choose to live off of campus with some friends from highschool. In Ohio, having any firearm on state university property means immediate and automatic expulsion. I lived in an apartment complex right next to campus and kept atleast 1 pistol there with me. One of my roomates was gun friendly, 2 weren't. I recommend you try to find someone gun friendly to live with, if at all possible.

I do believe there is value to living in the dorms. Sometimes wish I had spent atleast a year there, developing friends and getting a little taste of that part of the college experience. The group of friends I have now all met while living in the dorm, and I later found out that my girlfriend was in the same dorm at the same time.
 
You should look up the laws for your specific state.

In Florida, the law explicitely says you may have a firearm on school property, provided it is locked in your vehicle ( there's a few other details, I can pull the law if anyone wants ).

You may also have it unlocked in your vehicle, should you have a CWP. Of course, you may not remove it from your vehicle on school property.
 
I went to Ohio State University, when I was a Freshmen they tryed to tell me I had to live on campus untill my junior year. I was not about to live in such filth, grime and chaos such as having 6 or more suitemates (1 dormate, 4 dorms to a suite) with the whole floor sharing a bathroom. So I went to the doctor and told him about my fear of public restroom facilities, public housing quarters. I was able to convince him that I had chronic obsession compusive disorder regarding cleanliness, and that a public dormroom would be determental to my learning capabilites. I was granted off campus privledges. If we pay for college, I do not see that they have the right to babysit me and tell me where to sleep, when to be in my dorm and when to eat. If I wanted that, I would have joined the Army. So I rented a room from a very nice elderly woman for $50,plus I mowed her lawn weekly and kept her car in tune and helped her with shopping. The point is..think outside the box.
 
natedog said:
Zonamo, would you describe Reed as being particuarly punishing because of its academics, or some other reason?
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It's not the academics. Princeton Review ranks Reed as number 1 in overall academic experience.

It's because they also make the list at 6th for

Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians

8th for schools

Most nostalgic for Bill Clinton

and 11th for

Dodgeball Targets

Like I said, your a masochist. :neener:

And I agree with those above who say don't use your car-was just pointing out that it appears to be the only legal way to have your guns on campus.
 
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