PA Bill Number: HR541
Title: Recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Description: A Resolution recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Last Action:
Last Action Date: Sep 27, 2024
PA Preemption: Montgomery County Community College adopts new campus weapons policy :: 09/20/2016
Packing heat? Don’t come onto any property owned by Montgomery County Community College.
That's even if you have a concealed carry permit.
The college’s Board of Trustees on Monday unanimously voted to adopt a new weapons policy that takes effect immediately.
“We wanted to be as detailed and as up to date as possible,” said board Chairman Michael D’Aniello.
The new policy replaces a more generalized policy, he said.
D’Aniello said there was no specific event that sparked the new policy.
“We just wanted to be proactive rather than reactive,” added board member Ed Mullin, whose physical plant committee recommended adoption of the new policy to the entire board.
Director of Campus Security Joe McGuriman said he worked with a committee of stakeholders that included college administrators, faculty, staff and students in developing the policy.
“We worked hard to protect an individual’s right to carry arms while also protecting all those on our campuses,” said McGuriman.
The policy applies to all persons, employed, visiting, providing services or renting facilities at the college’s two campuses in Whitpain and Pottstown, as well as its Culinary Arts Institute in Towamencin.
No one may carry any deadly or offensive weapon on college property.
The policy defines a deadly or offensive weapon as one designed “to produce death or serious bodily injury.”
Among the prohibited weapons listed in the policy include:
- firearms, loaded or unloaded
- pellet, flare, tranquilizer, stun and dart guns
- knives with blades larger than a small folding knife
- daggers or swords
- striking instruments such as clubs, truncheons and blackjacks
- martial arts weapons
- bow and arrow combinations
- explosive devices
Those who have permits to carry a firearm must secure those weapons and leave them in their vehicles.
There are exceptions to the policy, including law enforcement personnel who carry the proper identification, members of the U.S. armed services if they are in uniform and conducting official business on the properties, and others such as security details assigned to armored truck vehicles.
Also, exceptions can be made in specific individual cases with the approval of both the college president and campus security chief.
“We are not inflexible, although we expect these individual exceptions will be rare,” said D’Aniello.
