A private college struck down a student’s appeal to start an NRA club Tuesday on the basis the club’s stance on gun control conflicts with that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with which the college partners.
Liam Nuhring, a student at Concordia College in Minnesota, had spent 6 months planning the club and talking about it with the NRA and the college, but Concordia’s Office of Student Engagement denied his request to establish the group on Tuesday, according to West Fargo Pioneer.
“This is something we all saw coming. It wasn’t a surprise by any means,” said Nuhring, who now plans to drop “NRA” from the group’s name in an attempt to win the school’s approval. “It’s a controversial thing, that’s for sure.”
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Concordia College support “passage and strict enforcement of local, state, and national legislation that rigidly controls manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, purchase, transfer, receipt, possession and transportation of handguns, assault weapons and assault-like weapons and their parts, excluding rifles and shotguns used for hunting and sporting purposes, for use other than law enforcement and military purposes,” reports West Fargo Pioneer.
The college informed Nuhring in a letter that the NRA holds a very different view concerning firearm management.
“I know for a fact that past groups of students have attempted to found college-recognized ‘Atheist’ groups, which were met with a similar response as the one we received with our application,” Nuhring told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “In regards to removing our affiliation with the NRA, this would be an unfortunate scenario, and would result in massive lost opportunities for students.”
“If we need to remove the NRA affiliation, then that’s what we’ll do and it is my suspicion that the group will be allowed to move forward at that point in time, but again that is still speculation.”
The student noted that he thinks Concordia will be motivated by donors to make a decision favorable to the club.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to both Concordia College for comment regarding whether the school’s association with the church has given rise to other conflicts in values, but received no comment in time for publication.
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