On the morning of February 22, 2024, Laken Riley, one of our fellow dawgs and a beautiful young soul, told her friend she was going to the Intramural Fields to run. While she was there, a being of pure evil set its sights on her and brutally killed her in broad daylight. The fact that this scum has any chance of being caught and Laken’s family receiving closure is due to the quick thinking and actions of Laken’s friend, she should be hailed as a hero and get the utmost support during this tremendously difficult time. But there’s more that could have been done, that needs to be done in order to prevent more tragedies like this from happening ever again. This incident is just that, a tragedy, and in no way do I want to prey off this horrible horrible loss of life to feed some political goal, but it is evident there is a clear and present weakness in student safety that will be exploited time and time again unless something is changed. Blue Lights, the UGA Safe App, and campus security are all necessary but this attack occurred in broad daylight and it is unlikely any of those would have helped now and unlikely they will help in a similar situation in the future. But there is something that will: removing the restrictions on campus carry in order for students to be able to practically defend themselves with the most effective tool possible. Campus carry (House Bill 280) allows any student who would otherwise be able to legally carry a handgun, to be able to do so on campus without a license and given they follow certain restrictions. This means any 18 year old student can carry a handgun on campus as long as it’s concealed. However, there are two restrictions which make doing so highly impractical and risky. These restrictions prevent a student from carrying their weapon in a class that high school students are also enrolled in, even if those students are online, as well as preventing students from storing or carrying their weapon in residential housing on campus, leaving them with the only options of storing it in their car (if they have one) or in an apartment off campus, entirely blocking freshmen from being able to practically exercise their right to defend themselves and others with the most effective tool possible. These restrictions are highly egregious and illogical, there is no special danger to high school students from someone carrying a concealed weapon in that class (especially if those students take the class online), and firearms can be safely stored in dorms as long as they’re kept in a safe which the RAs can check during room inspections. Thus, it is the goal of this petition to raise awareness about, and hopefully attract enough attention to get these illogical restrictions removed so the next Laken Riley, and the 40,000 other UGA students like you and I, can practically defend ourselves and others with the most effective tools possible. I know this petition will likely be met with harsh criticism and I understand, if I hadn’t been shooting since 6 years old and lived my entire life experiencing firearms then my views would likely be the same as many of yours. But my soul hurt hearing the news about Laken, not just because of her terrible terrible death at the hands of a monster, but because I know that if the law was different then maybe a bystander, or Laken herself, could have been carrying a weapon that would have preserved life as effectively as possible without fear of breaking some baseless rule. 

Let our Dawgs protect themselves!

If you support the cause then please share, if you don’t then I’m happy to answer any questions.