Cuccinelli clarifies guns-on-campus position

RICHMOND — A gun scare Thursday at Virginia Tech rekindled the debate about carrying firearms at state-run universities.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli recently waded into the controversy. In an official advisory opinion, Cuccinelli found a University of Virginia gun policy too restrictive and lacking in authority.

The opinion, released last month, said that a George Mason University regulation, which has the force of law, unlike a policy, offered a legal way to restrict firearms inside classroom buildings or at campus events but still allow weapons outdoors.

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the George Mason regulation but found that universities can’t completely ban weapons on campus, according to the opinion.

Last week in an interview with Virginia Statehouse News, Cuccinelli said that privately owned businesses and churches have more flexibility than state agencies when trying to restrict weapon possession.

“Joe’s restaurant doesn’t need to issue regulations. Joe just needs to put up a sign. You can’t wear purple shirts and you can’t carry a handgun,” Cuccinelli said.

But the state constitution doesn’t give that flexibility to state institutions, like Virginia Tech or UVa, he said.

“UVa is not the property owner. The people of Virginia own it,” Cuccinelli said.

In a related opinion released in April, the attorney general found that the Second Amendment grants the right to carry firearms and that self-defense is a legitimate reason for carrying a weapon even if a property owner has prohibited them.

The opinion reaffirmed, however, that churches or other private property owners can ban guns on their property.

Although advisory opinions do not create new law, they are akin to a judicial ruling. And state agencies, including universities, must adhere to the decisions, Cuccinelli said.

Whether it’s good policy to allow any weapons on campus is a matter for debate.

Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said that universities should be able to determine for themselves whether and how to restrict weapons on campus.

He said it’s likely that UVa could go through the process to adopt a regulation, similar to George Mason’s, to limit weapons at certain events and places and there would be nothing the attorney general’s office could do or say about it.

“I don’t think it’s good public policy to be encouraging people to come onto college campuses with guns concealed or unconcealed,” Toscano said. “We should allow some discretion to these institutions when they indicate they don’t want guns on the campus. The state ought not to force them to allow people to carry them there.”

Weapons and the threat of violence are contrary to the mission of institutions of higher learning, he said, adding that students expect a certain level of safety, which is compromised when weapons are brought to campus.

“The opinion takes the position that guns on campus make campuses safer. That’s not a legal opinion that he’s rendering, that’s a political opinion,” Toscano said. “This is where he really crossed the line in the opinion, stating his political opinion.”

Toscano said that Cuccinelli infuses his conservative philosophy on issues and tries to impose that on the public.

“Certainly, during my time in the General Assembly, there is no doubt that this is the most activist attorney general that we have seen,” Toscano said.

 Political future

That activism has drawn the attention and support with tea party voters while spurring outrage from liberal voters in the state.

A poll released last week among likely Republican primary voters found that Cuccinelli would beat Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in a race for governor. Bolling is already actively campaigning for the state’s top job.

Cuccinelli said he took the results as a positive sign that voters like the job he’s been doing.

“I act and operate as if I’m running for re-election,” he said.

But Cuccinelli said he hasn’t decided yet what office he will seek next. He said he will wait until after the fall General Assembly elections before making a decision about his political future.

Tea party voters will support Cuccinelli regardless of which office he chooses to seek, said Kurt Feigel, spokesman for the Virginia Tea Party Patriots, a coalition of more than 35 tea party organizations around the state.

“One of the things we really like about Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is that he is really pushing back against the federal government, especially in the areas of the Ninth and 10th amendments,” Feigel said. “He understands where people’s rights are.”

The Ninth and Tenth amendments affirm individuals’ and states’ rights where the U.S. Constitution is silent. That focus on the federal Constitution is what draws him to tea party supporters, Feigel said.

“I could easily see him run for governor and do a good job. But he’s doing such a good job as attorney general, I kind of want to keep him there,” he said.

Cuccinelli’s views and his aggressive use of the office have become fundraising fodder for Democrats who oppose his positions.

Just last week, the Democratic Party of Virginia sent out an email to supporters calling Cuccinelli “one of the most radical and shamefully anti-middle class politicians Virginia has ever seen.”

Democrats, progressives and some moderates don’t agree with Cuccinelli’s positions or how he uses the office, said Brian Coy, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia.

“For a lot of folks it is energizing. It’s a cautionary tale about elections. Elections have consequences,” Coy said.

Instead of focusing on Internet predators and other traditional public safety matters, Cuccinelli has embarked on a “witch hunt against academic freedom” and launched lawsuits against the federal government. Such work has raised Cuccinelli’s profile both in Virginia and nationally, Coy said.

“He uses this office as a launching platform for his political crusades instead of making life better for Virginian families,” Coy said.

Where that national attention will take Cuccinelli remains unknown. But he does plan to be involved in next year’s presidential race by supporting the Republican nominee.

However, Cuccinelli said he hasn’t thrown his support behind a specific candidate yet.

Cuccinelli said he would like to be part of the U.S. attorney general’s office. If he was asked to serve as the nation’s top prosecutor, that would be “just spectacular,” he said.

Virginia Statehouse News is a nonprofit, nonpartisan project of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity dedicated to providing transparency at the state government level and to hold government officials accountable.