UCI Revises Gun Policy After Scares : Firearms: Two students are disciplined for having weapons on campus; one is expelled on charges of pointing his at hecklers.
IRVINE — An 18-year-old student at UC Irvine has been expelled and charged with two felonies after admitting he pointed a handgun at the head at two of three students he said were threatening him in a dormitory hallway.
Also last week, another 18-year-old was arrested on a felony charge and suspended after university police found an unloaded, assault-type rifle on his dormitory bed.
Police say the unrelated incidents have prompted campus officials to revise their policy on possessing guns. The current policy merely states that students can be disciplined for violating the law, while a new one will specifically warn students that possessing a gun or explosives is a violation, said Sarah Johnson, assistant dean of students.
“Our students generally don’t bring guns on campus,†said Dennis L. Powers, assistant campus police chief. But the campus is a reflection of the community, and guns exist in the community, he said.
While police confiscate guns on campus about two or three times a year, most of them are brought on campus by non-student workers and members of the public attending campus events such as concerts, Powers said.
“It’s very rare when we actually have somebody assault someone with a weapon,†he said.
In the first incident last week, a student in the Prado dormitory said he used an unloaded .22-caliber handgun on Jan. 19 to try to scare three other students who were threatening and pushing him after he laughed at offensive remarks they made to him.
Police arrested Joshua N. Hagen, a freshman English major, and confiscated the unloaded gun. “Whether it was loaded at the time of the incident, we don’t know,†Powers said.
The three students told police they made a remark about the dormitory being a “pigsty,†which prompted Hagen to yell threats at them through his dormitory room window as the three students walked away. The three returned and Hagen held the gun to the head of one and to the mouth of another, the three students told police.
Powers would not release those students’ names.
Hagen was expelled the day after the arrest. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 11.
Hagen, who spent three days in Orange County Jail before calling his parents to bail him out, said he realizes the seriousness of the incident and doesn’t know why he kept the gun in his room.
“That’s something I really can’t explain,†Hagen said. “I had no reason to bring it there at all. I just had it.â€
In the second incident, police received a tip that student Paul C. Valles had a gun in his dormitory room. “We went to his room, and sure enough,†Powers said.
The rifle was unloaded, but Valles had a magazine for it and one bullet in the room, he said. Valles was arrested on a charge of having a firearm at a public school, a felony.
“My opinion was the student didn’t bring the gun on campus to hurt anybody,†Powers said. “He said he wanted to show it to a friend. He was quite proud of it.â€
But the crime is serious because students fooling with the rifle could have accidentally shot it, Powers said. A bullet from the high-powered rifle would probably pass through two or three walls before stopping, he said.
Valles could not be reached for comment.
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