WHAT:
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
(SCCC) is a national organization advocating for campus denizens to be
able to provide for their own personal security by being allowed to
carry firearms on campus. SCCC organized an
empty holster protest in October of 2007
when students were encouraged to wear empty holsters on campus for a
week to bring attention to and stimulate dialog about students being
exposed to and undefended from violence on campus.
SCCC plans
another empty holster protest during the week of April 21-25 for the same purpose.
THE PROBLEM IS that many students don't own or possess holsters to be
able to participate in such a protest. Therefore, MSSA is
sponsoring a contest to help Montana college students with designs of
holsters than can be fabricated from materials commonly available to
college students.
WHO: Any interested
person may submit a holster design for this contest, but only Montana
college students are eligible for the cash prizes available. A
"Montana college student" is defined as any person actively enrolled in
post-secondary education and currently residing in Montana. This
includes full-time or part-time students at universities, colleges, and
any person who does coursework on a college or university campus in
Montana. All persons not college students are encouraged to
submit viable designs, but the prize money is intended for (poor,
starving) college students.
WHY: To provide students
with a viable, inexpensive way to participate in the SCCC empty holster
protest without having to actually own a real holster.
WHERE: Anyone, anywhere may submit a design, but only active Montana college students are eligible for cash prizes.
WHEN: All designs must be
submitted electronically no later than midnight, April 12th, 2008, so
we may publish the best designs for students to use during the week of
the SCCC empty holster protest.
WHAT DESIGNS: Two design
categories will be accepted/may be submitted - designs that look like
real holsters and designs that are symbolic of holsters.
DESIGN CRITERIA: Designs
will be judged by how effective they are in appearance, how readily
they may be constructed from materials likely to be conveniently
available to college students, and how durable they are (they must last
a week).
WHO WILL JUDGE DESIGNS: MSSA will judge designs in the two categories offered. MSSA's judgment will be final.
WHAT PRIZES: In each category, $75 will be offered for first place, $50 for second place, and $25 for third place.
HOW WILL DESIGNS BENEFIT STUDENTS:
All designs deemed suitable will be posted and accessible from this
Website, so any student may access these designs and recreate them for
personal use during the week of SCCC's empty holster protest.
WHAT MUST BE SUBMITTED:
Everything submitted must be done electronically. The name, mail
address (to send a prize check), town of residence and school must be
submitted, although if MSSA posts your design we will only post your
name and school (or town for non-students), AND we will post "Anon" and
your school (or town for non-students) if you request. Please
declare in the submission if you are a Montana college student so as to
be eligible for one of the prizes. The following design
information must be submitted:
1) A list of materials and tools necessary for holster construction;
2) A narrative of how to construct the finished product from the materials;
3) Any templates or cutting patterns that would be useful to a person using the design; and
4) A digital photograph of the finished product, on a person, preferably worn at waist level.
5) Optional - any comment about the concept of self defense on
campus, the SCCC empty holster protest and/or university policies
related (we may post your comment with your entry).
6) A design must be declared to be either "Real" or "Symbolic" to be properly entered in the contest.
Example 1, a "real" holster
Example 2, a "symbolic" holster
SHOULD FAKE OR TOY GUNS BE INCLUDED IN THE DESIGN: Absolutely
NOT. See the SCCC's rules for the empty holster protest.
MULTIPLE DESIGNS: A
person with more than one design idea may submit any number of designs,
but each design must be complete and in a separate submission.
WHERE/HOW TO SUBMIT A DESIGN:
Email to mssa " AT " mtssa " DOT " org (replace the " AT " with @ and
the " DOT " with a period - done to foil eddress-harvesting
spambots). The Subject: of the email should read "Holster Design
Contest." The list of materials and narrative should be in text
in the body of the email. Any templates or patterns should be in
a .doc, .pdf, or .jpeg attached file. Photos of a person wearing
the finished product should be in an attached .jpeg file, should be
less than 1MB in file size, and should NOT show the face of the person
modeling the product.
PROPERTY RIGHT: All
designs submitted will become the property of MSSA and all acceptable
designs will be put into the public domain (no property right).
Any person submitting a design will forego any property right to the
design submitted. A submission should include the statement, "I
agree that the design material submitted here may be put into the
public domain."
CONTEST POSTER: A contest poster (MSWord, .doc file) may be downloaded
HERE.
FURTHER INFORMATION: See MSSA's comment on the proposed new MSU firearms policy
HERE.
See MSSA's analysis of the Montana university system and firearms
HERE.
ANYTHING WE FORGOT TO ADDRESS: Send an email and ask.