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Watch VideoCollege students protest gun loophole
One by one, 32 Colorado College students laid down on steps inside the student center. They symbolized the victims in last year’s shootings at Virginia Tech. Around their necks they wore ribbons made by victims' family members.
“We're here as outraged American citizens who want our gun laws to not only be enforced but also to close that loophole,” said Angela Cobian, the C.C. student organizer.
Cobian says they're angry about a loophole in federal law that allows people to buy guns at gun shows without a background check. The three minutes they spent on the floor represented the average time, they say, it takes to buy a gun.
“We don't want guns to be so readily accessibly to people,” said Cobian.
Just a few miles north, at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and at Pikes Peak Community College, more students are planning a protest in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. But with a different message.
“To be able to have students, faculty members, administrators, people who work at the school to be able to come to the school and feel safe and know if they choose to do so, they have the right to protect themselves,” said Kyle Spiller, the student organizer of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at Pikes Peak Community College.
They want school policies to change to allow students to bring concealed firearms on campus. Next week, students at the two schools will wear empty holsters to show they're defenseless against gunmen.
“If they're qualified enough and responsible enough and no criminal background then that's they're right,” said Cobian. “However, I think it's a dangerous, dangerous situation to have anyone on a school campus being able to have a gun,”
The nationwide movement of the “lie-ins” is called “Protest Easy Guns.” Many of the other groups will hold their protest on Wednesday – the 1-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
