"The charges will officially be dismissed in August, and if the students stay out of trouble, their records will be expunged after three years. The students ... must pay approximately $400 each to reimburse Charlottesville and UVA police and for the medical expenses of a student who was taken to the hospital and treated for a panic attack as a result of the incident. They also must perform 50 hours of community service." http://www.thehook.net/2007/06/05/deal- ... -students/ and http://www.thehook.net/2007/04/27/vt-fa ... r-arrests/
My wife and I are both UVA grads and love Charlottesville dearly. It should be clear, though, that the University police and students and their silliness does not represent the rest of the town. Charlottesville itself is a old railroad town. My job during school was in the light industrial part of town, we rented a house in the city, and we were both in fire and ems in the city. Trust me, the regular people there are like the rest of non-Northern Virginians when it comes to support of gun rights, etc.
Charlottesville is a nice town. My wife and I visited there several years ago and enjoyed it, and the UVA campus was very nice with lots of great history. The silliness here is a student panicing over something like that. I can understand police responding to something like that as if it were real.
From VCDL Alert: ************************************************** 18. BB gun charges dropped against UVA students ************************************************** This arrest made the UVA police look pretty stupid when it happened. And we are supposed to put our lives solely in their hands? No thanks. Luckily the charges were dropped. http://tinyurl.com/2hhjzd DailyProgress.com BB gun charges dropped against UVa students By Brian McNeill bmcneill@dailyprogress.com | 978-7266 Friday, August 24, 2007 All charges were dropped Friday against four University of Virginia students arrested for brandishing a BB gun on campus days after the April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech. The students - Christopher Allen Smith, Caroline Choe, Eric Chau and Jerry Hsieh - were cleared of one count each of brandishing a firearm in an agreement worked out with the county's commonwealth's attorneys office. "It's a relief," said Chau as he left Albemarle County General District Court Friday. The scare happened on the night of April 23 at Wilsdorf Hall, UVa's new nanotechnology and chemical engineering building. The four students were filming a movie as part of a class project for their Japanese 201 language class. The students used an unloaded and broken BB gun as a prop in one scene. Two witnesses called UVa police to report a young gunman at Wilsdorf and moments later, heavily armed police officers descended on the building. One female student who saw the BB gun was so panicked she had to be treated at the UVa Medical Center. Seven students locked themselves in a classroom. Another student called his parents to say he might never see them again, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Camblos. In exchange for dropping the charges, the students had to perform 50 hours of community service, cover the costs of the police response and reimburse the frightened female student for her medical bills. [For crying out loud. This is pretty stupid, too. - PVC] In all, each student had to pay roughly $405.
This is Why This is why students shouldn't be able to carry guns on campus. If they see fellow students brandishing what look like real firearms and appearing to take hostages, the armed citizen-students might shoot the other ones dead, only to find out later that they've just killed some stupid but harmless film students shooting a scene for a movie. On the other hand, maybe that's not a good enough reason to ban guns on campus. Let's ban stupid people from campus instead !!!