Jeffrey Maxwell, who served in the Marines, was suspended from Western Oregon University after officers stopped him with a small gun and knife in his pocket. He has a license to carry a concealed weapon, but the university prohibits weapons on campus.
LEBANON -- Jeffrey Maxwell, a 30-year-old student at Western Oregon University who served in the Marines, always carries a loaded two-bullet derringer in his front pocket that's so small it looks like it could be his keys.
He has a license to carry and conceal the gun, but he never takes it out or talks about it on campus because he doesn't want to scare anyone. It's only for protection, he says.
State law allows him to carry his gun in most public places. But the university says he can't carry it on campus -- license or no license. Maxwell's case might finally settle the long-standing conflict in court for all seven public universities in Oregon.
"We have an honest guy that served his country, and now he's being treated in a way that's totally unconscionable," said Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation. "It's a situation we've been hoping to resolve for a long time."
Maxwell's gun rekindled the legal and legislative debate over guns on campus after campus safety officers received reports of a suspicious man with a large knife on campus one morning in late January.
Maxwell, who also had a 5-inch folding knife in his pocket, was sitting in the student union doing his homework when officers approached.
When Maxwell told officers he had the gun and knife in his pocket and an unloaded rifle in his truck, he was handcuffed and taken to the Monmouth Police station, where he was cited for possessing a firearm in a public building.
The Polk County district attorney later determined he had not committed a crime and didn't charge him. But a student judicial panel suspended him through the end of the spring term under a student conduct rule banning the possession or use of firearms and other weapons.
To re-enroll, Maxwell has been ordered to get a mental health evaluation and write a minimum 10-page paper on following the law, accepting responsibility for his actions and "recognizing the impact possession of weapons on college campuses has on others."
Maxwell has appealed the punishment.
Starrett said his firearms group is preparing a federal civil rights suit unless the university reinstates Maxwell and changes its firearms ban.
The same group paid for a Medford teacher's suit to carry a concealed gun to school in 2007. The teacher lost the case, but an appeal is scheduled to be heard April 13 before the Oregon Court of Appeals, Starrett said.
After learning of Maxwell's case, House Minority Leader Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, and Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, sent a letter to Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner calling the system's gun policies out of line with state law.
Oregon law allows holders of concealed handgun licenses to carry their guns in public buildings except federal property and courtrooms.
"I wanted to give my support to a student who I feel was wrongfully singled out and accused," Thatcher said.
Pernsteiner has asked the university system's legal counsel to consult with Oregon Attorney General John Kroger on a "prudent course of action."
"It's really an issue of student safety," added Di Saunders, spokeswoman for the university system. "The more weapons that are on campus, the more likelihood of either an accident occurring or something more purposeful."
Thatcher disagrees, saying a campus is safer if concealed weapons are allowed with a license.
Maxwell, a psychology major who wants to work as a school or camp counselor, said he carries a concealed weapon because "after traveling the world in the Marine Corps, I realize the world isn't as safe and as comfy as people would like to think it is."
He worked on helicopters in the Marines from 1996 to 2002, stationed mostly at Camp Pendleton. He also served overseas in Okinawa, Korea, the Philippines, China and other parts of the Pacific.
After he got out, he enrolled in Linn-Benton Community College and transferred to Western Oregon in Monmouth last fall. He lives with his grandmother and mother in Lebanon, where he grew up, and works the night shift caring for developmentally disabled adults.
He took his first hunting safety course at age 11 and hunts small game, but he can't bring himself to shoot any large animals.
"I just like shooting at targets," he said.
He also collects knives and carries one in his pocket as a tool -- the one he had with him when he was stopped by officers was a Christmas present from his mom. He doesn't know why anyone thought he might be a threat.
Maxwell says he carries a gun to be ready for "that one nut" who wants to harm others. It bothers him that some students might see him that way.
"I don't want to be seen as some creepy guy or a gun nut," he said. "I just want to protect what's mine."