By Bill McMorris | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — The day before part-time Radford University student Ross Truett Ashley killed a Virginia Tech police officer, an influential pro-gun group held a protest on his campus.

On Wednesday, Philip Van Cleave and the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League, or VCDL, sparked fierce debate when they hosted a protest against campus gun restrictions at Radford University in Radford.

Van Cleave said the investigation should focus on the shooter, rather than guns.

“If a drunk driver kills somebody, we don’t scrutinize every driver. You punish the guilty and leave the innocent alone,” said the president of the league. “This is an assassin and exactly the type of person we want to protect ourselves from.”

Virginia State Police reported that Ashley, 22, of Radford, shot and killed campus police officer Deriek Crouse, a 39-year-old father of five, during an unrelated traffic stop. Ashley then shot and killed himself in a nearby parking lot.

The protests sparked intrigue and outrage on both sides of gun control at Radford.

Brittany Jeglum, a graduate student at Radford, living in Blacksburg, took to Facebook on Tuesday when she heard the protest was coming.

“Could our school be any closer to Tech? I’m surprised they didn’t hold it on the anniversary,” she said.

Over the next three days, friends bombarded her post, leaving 32 comments.

Radford sophomore Mallory Young echoed Jeglum’s reservations.

“I’m for guns, but not on campus,” she wrote. “Who knows who would go insane at any moment and then we’d be like Tech.”

Van Cleave was in Harrisonburg protesting at James Madison University at the time of the shooting.

Thursday’s protest was no different than any other event, as Van Cleave distributed fliers and educational information to students amid debate.

At the same time, the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech, where he had protested on Nov. 17, was in lockdown.

Van Cleave’s movement drew counter-protests sponsored by gun control advocates, including the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, or CSGV, and the Virginia Center for Public Safety, or VCPS, at each of its campus demonstrations.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of CSGV and a board member on VCPS, attended rallies at VCU and Old Dominion.

The protests “are utterly distasteful and disrespectful,” he said.

“Campuses are generally safe places, and the idea that you need more guns is silly,” Horwitz said.

Groups on both sides of the debate and university administrators have described the demonstrations as peaceful. But news of the protests have sparked controversy among young people.

VCDL, which says it has 5,000 due-paying members and 15,000 subscribers, has been effective at getting pro-gun legislation onto the floor of the General Assembly and into state law, including the 2010 provision to allow guns into bars.

Getting guns onto college campuses may prove a challenge, even for VCDL that bills itself as “the ONLY (sic) organization to get pro gun bills introduced in every legislative session since 1997.”

Delegate John Cox, R-Ashland, who sponsored a VCDL-endorsed provision to speed up the concealed carry permit process in 2011, said he has not heard any proposals in the General Assembly to force universities to lift restrictions, calling it an “unlikely hypothetical.”

In Virginia, any person 21 or older can obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon, provided they pass a criminal background check and attend a training course. Concealed weapons, however, are prohibited at VCU, GMU, K-12 school grounds and state parks.

Van Cleave said he hopes to avoid the legislative route because the changes for which he advocates can be made at the university level.

“The real problem here is not a legal one — guests at a university can carry their weapons outside — we want to change the university policy that says faculty and students can’t carry guns,” he said. “If you break policy, you may be within the law, but you could be expelled or fired.”

The protests are just the start of the VCDL’s “No Guns? No Funds!” campaign. He is pressing his members and supportive alumni of Virginia colleges to halt donations to their respective alma maters unless gun restrictions are lifted.

Thursday’s protest did little to alter James Madison University’s position on gun control.

“We’ve been very clear on this, and our position hasn’t changed: We don’t believe that guns belong in the classroom; we don’t believe that guns make campuses safer,” university spokesman Don Egle said.

Police say they do not have any motive for Thursday’s shooting, and the investigation is continuing , said state police spokeswoman Corrine Geller.

It was the first shooting on Virginia Tech’s campus since Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 classmates and faculty in April 2007. He then shot and killed himself.