Administrators at Texas Christian University repeatedly shot down conservative students’ attempts to publicize an event by using a picture of a gun, and vetoed a gun safety course entirely.
Administrators at the private university in Fort Worth, Texas prohibited student members of a Young Americans for Freedom chapter from advertising conservative commentator Bay Buchanan’s visit to the university by circulating a picture of an antique shotgun with the caption “Fully Loaded.”
Students were allowed to hand out fliers for the event, but could not distribute the materials to academic departments or post them on official university channels, such as TCU’s website.
The university’s anti-gun zealotry didn’t stop there. Conservative students were also banned from raffling off tickets for gun safety training courses.
“They just shot us down, told us … we can’t do anything with guns whatsoever,” said Kathleen D’Urso, chairwoman of TCU’s YAF chapter, in an interview with The College Fix.
The Buchanan event, which took place last week, was attended by about 50 students. But D’Urso believes she could have had twice that number if administrators hadn’t censored her fliers, which depicted Buchanan, former President Ronald Reagan, a shotgun and the “Fully Loaded” message.
“Bay’s speech was received really well, she answered a lot of questions about guns on campus and stats,” said D’Urso. “[But] I am frustrated. This event wasn’t supposed to advocate guns on campus, we simply wanted to open up a discussion on Second Amendment rights.”
But officials at the private university–which prohibits guns on campus–told The College Fix that literature promoting guns in any way, shape or form is strictly forbidden.
“Gun promotion is contradictory of the university’s policy to carry on campus,” wrote Lisa Albert, director of communications for TCU, in an email to The College Fix.
Albert told The Daily Caller that YAF’s marketing tactics were “inappropriate,” given the amount of gun violence at schools and university campuses.
“What we did not allow was the image of a rifle and the words ‘fully loaded’ because such an approach is inappropriate in today’s environment,” she wrote in an email.