NDSU Weapons Policy Precludes University Fencing Team

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Valley News Live – KVLY/KXJB – Fargo/Grand Forks
bluntobjectsThere doesn’t seem to be a lot of common sense on North Dakota’s campuses these days.

At the University of North Dakota a member of the student government, and Democrat candidate for the state Legislature, wants to ban support for the former Fighting Sioux logo and nickname. Because apparently they don’t teach anything about the 1st amendment at UND.

Now, at North Dakota State University, students trying to put together a fencing team have run into a brick wall in the form of the campus weapons policy. Despite the fact that fencing swords are a “weapon” only by the most generous of definitions of that word, university officials say they can’t allow it.

“They are deemed weapons, and as such, possession or use on University owned or controlled property is prohibited,” says NDSU’s Police and Safety Office Director Ray Boyer, according to this Valley News Live article.

You can see a picture of the tips of these “swords” to the right. They have no points, and no edges. Attacking someone with one of these things would be the equivalent of trying to bludgeon someone to death with a car antenna.

If these fencing “swords” are weapons, then so are forks.

Can NDSU students be trusted with that potentially deadly eating utensil, or do we maybe need a return to sanity when it comes to NDSU’s weapons policy?