University police chief denies threatening students who planned on-campus pro-gun rally

Two conservative students at Santa Fe College say their school’s chief of police threatened to draw his firearm on students who participated in a planned protest in favor of the right to conceal carry handguns on their campuses.

The student group Young Americans for Liberty are encouraging students to wear empty holsters on Monday as a peaceful way of expressing their pro-gun views.

“He said he would draw his gun on us for doing the empty holster protest,” said students, Josh Norris and Adam Edwards, who are organizing the demonstration. “He specifically said he would draw it out.”

Santa Fe College Chief of Police Ed Book, however, conceded his opposition to their event but adamantly denied the charges in an interview with Campus Reform on Tuesday.

“I didn’t say that,” he told Campus Reform. “I never threatened to point my gun at them.”

Edwards responded to Book’s denial, however, saying he was “floored” by the comments.

“That’s exactly what happened,” said Edwards. “That is what he said to me.”

Norris and Edwards also say Book made the threat despite the fact that they explicitly explained to him the protest would be peaceful and include no handguns.

“He said he would go to the school’s legal department and see if he can take any legal action,” said Norris, the club’s president. “He said he was going to go and try to get legal action taken [if we went forward with the event.”

Both students are members of the campus group Young Americans for Liberty and said their group plans to go on with their event despite the opposition.

They are encouraging students to wear empty holsters on Monday as a peaceful way of expressing their pro-gun views.

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