Cuccinelli Clarifies Guns On Campus Position

By Amanda Iacone, Virginia Statehouse News Sunday, August 07, 2011

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 debate. In an official advisory opinion, Cuccinelli found a University of Virginia gun policy too restrictive and lacking in authority.

The opinion, last month, said that a George Mason University regulation, which unlike a policy has the force of law, 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.

This 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 can just put up a sign,” Cuccinelli said. ”You can’t wear purple shirts or carry a gun.”

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 of UVA. The people of Virginia ultimately 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. 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.

Delegate David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said 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 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 every issue 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 of tea party voters while spurring outrage from liberal voters in the state.

A poll released this 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 or whether he will run for a second term as attorney general. 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 amendment,” Feigel said. “He understands where people’s rights are.”

The Ninth and 10th 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 this 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. He does plan to be involved in next year’s presidential race by supporting the Republican nominee, although Cuccinelli said he hasn't yet endorsed a specific candidate.

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

Violent Predators

The attorney general’s office also plays a large role in determining which men are sent to the state’s behavioral rehabilitation center in Nottoway County for sexually violent predators.

The program is under review to find ways to curb its burgeoning population and to ensure that the appropriate types of offenders are sent there.

Questions arose over the use of a 12-question test used as an initial assessment tool before the cases are sent to the attorney general’s office for further review. A judge makes the final determination whether to civilly commit the offenders to Nottoway.

“It is serving its purpose,” Cuccinelli said of the program, adding that its assessments are effective. “These are truly dangerous folks by and large, as far as we can tell.”

The challenge, he said, is the budget impact because as the population at the center increases, so do the costs.

The more men sent to the facility, the more work that's added to his staff, who must argue before a judge regularly whether someone should be released from the program, Cuccinelli said.

“It’s the most overworked section in my office,” he said.

He said lawmakers will have to balance the need for the program with the cost and that they will have to consider possibly reducing the number of offenses so that only the most severe cases are eligible.