On October 23, Seattle Central Community College (SCCC) campus security received a tip from a concerned student that a 23-year-old student—whom we will not name—was carrying a gun on campus. The next day, at noon, campus security and Seattle police met the man in the hallway—with "guns drawn," according to one student—and searched him. Officers found a loaded gun in his waistband and two more firearms and ammunition in his backpack. He was carrying three Sig Sauer hand guns according to the SPD—a 9 mm, a .40 caliber, and a .45. The man—described in the police report as "extremely nervous" and "shaking"—was arrested for having a "dangerous weapon" on campus. At the precinct, officers interviewed the man who, according to the report, "cried and shook uncontrollably."

The school suspended the man for one year for violating campus weapons policies, but because he possessed a concealed-weapons permit, what he did was not technically a crime. The man's weapons were taken as evidence, but he is not being charged.

In light of last April's shootings at Virginia Tech and the University of Washington, the appearance of weapons on campus is a cause for alarm. Several of the man's classmates have expressed concern about his stability and related a series of bizarre in-class incidents.

"He'd bring his pit bull into class," says one former classmate who asked not to be named. "The teacher never said anything, which surprised me. It's obviously not a service dog." Several classmates claim the man—who appears on his MySpace page with what appears to be a black eye and swollen lip, next to the manifesto-like quote "The fruit of my apathy has left me objectively numb"—constantly slept in class, and was even booted by an instructor. "He was sleeping—and snoring rather loudly—and the teacher finally... asked him to leave." The next day, the student says the teacher asked the class to write letters supporting her decision to boot the man. "We really didn't want him back in our class," says the student. "He [came] back anyway."

One of the man's former classmates, Alisa Mackay—who had no problem being identified—says she had class with him last spring, and also expressed concern about his demeanor. "He did not seem like a stable person to me," Mackay says. "He always seemed really blurry and out of it. He'd constantly mumble everything and fall asleep in class." Perhaps the most troubling statement about the man comes from the police report. "[He] is afraid that his enemies are out to cause him harm," the report says, adding that he "suffers from an anxiety disorder, which he takes medication for."

There isn't much the school can do about similar incidents in the future. The school has cameras and a security officer, but SCCC spokeswoman Laura Mansfield says the school primarily relies on students to be its "eyes and ears." Indeed, while a student reported the guns to school security, the rest of the student body wasn't notified of the incident until a mass e-mail was sent out two days after the man's arrest, and a day after the school had notified the faculty. "Our students can be difficult to contact. We don't have group e-mail lists," Mansfield says.

While the school does have a weapons policy in place—that "the possession of firearms on campus is illegal," although Mansfield says punishment is discretionary—there's no way to prevent guns from coming onto campus. Metal detectors aren't an option and, Mansfield says, "Part of the difficulty is that this young man had a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon. We are somewhat constrained by state law."

While it's illegal to bring a gun into a courthouse or a bar, there's no law banning them on college campuses. Mansfield says that whenever there has been an incident like this on campus, schools push the state school board to work with the legislature to ban weapons on campus. Nevertheless, Mansfield says, "strong lobbying forces" kill antigun legislation.

"Over the last 30 years, the National Rifle Association has created a body of political opinion that is reflexive to any control on guns," says State Senator Adam Kline (D-37). Kline has sponsored two bills to curb access to guns, but, he says, even "fairly moderate" measures tend to die in committee. Kline is pragmatic about the situation. "I have to ask myself: Do I want to fight that battle, or do I want to work on stuff that I think I can win on?" he says. "It may be chickenhearted for legislators to give up on this battle, but you just can't win."

When asked about the sensibility of banning guns from courtrooms and bars, but not colleges, Kline took a shot at progun legislators. "This is not a matter of sense; this is a matter of legislation," he said. "Legislators don't need to make sense." recommended

jonah@thestranger.com