Young Americans for Liberty @ the University of Kansas was excited to partner with KU's Student Legislative Awareness Board to host local legislators Marcie Francisco, Stephanie Clayton, John Wilson, Barbara Bollier, and Melissa Rooker at the Kansas Union for a panel on higher education-related issues.

Topics discussed included the rising tuition rate and concealed carry on campus.

As you may well know, Kansas recently became one of the most gun-friendly states in the nation thanks to the Second Amendment Protection Act, which protects gun rights by barring federal agents from enforcing federal gun restrictions within the state of Kansas. It also allows students to conceal carry on public campuses, which, unfortunately, all five panelists openly opposed during the forum. We YAL-ers were visibly unhappy by the anti-Second Amendment stance taken by the panelists during the  discussion.

After the panel was done, YAL members stuck around to engage the legislators on topics ranging from rising tuition costs to the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Our vice president, Josh, managed to strike up a conversation about the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) by Kansas law enforcement agencies.

This was a great chance for YAL members to reach out to our representatives and make our voices heard concerning issues that hit close to home. Fingers crossed for more opportunities like this in the future!

The Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Belmont University had our most successful showing on campus with our Generation of War activism project and convocation event.

Our activism event took place on Monday, April 1st in Belmont's cafeteria. We deployed the game Pin The Drone on the Warzone, which informed students about America's numerous wars and foreign policy interventions.

We also created a poster board which displayed a list of all children killed in Pakistan and Yemen by U.S. drone strikes. For the sake of comparison, we included a list of children killed by gun violence at Columbine and Sandy Hook Elementary. This brought out the emotions of many students. We wanted to address the hypocrisy of President Obama's intent on saving the lives of children at home while he destroys the lives of children abroad.

With the help of Antiwar.com's Angela Keaton and Nick Hankoff, we were able to host two speakers: Michael Maharrey, National Communications Director of The 10th Amendment Center and Adam House, Iraq War Combat Veteran and libertarian activist.

This is the first in a series of public forums KU-YAL members participated in during April Activism month.

On April 17, Kansas YAL students attended a campus forum and distributed materials showing our support of the people’s right to bear arms, which shall not be infringed. The materials included a chart highlighting the disparity in crime statistics for Chicago, D.C., and Houston before and after gun bans.

The discussion centered on the national gun debate at the Dole Institute of Politics.  The event, titled "GUN CONTROL: Freedom vs. Safety," attracted considerable interest and was hosted by members of the Student Advisory Board, including our very own chapter member Anthony Orwick.  This is part of our strategy to have members involved in key working groups and coalitions on campus to promote liberty.

Fireworks were surprisingly mild between Patricia Stoneking, President of the Kansas Rifle Association, and Allen Rostron, Constitutional Law Scholar and Professor at UMKC and Former Senior Staff Attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Oh, goodie.

With Constitutions and palmcards in hand, the members of North Carolina State University YAL went out to the Brickyard to educate the student body on the harsh reality of our time at war. For 6 hours, we discussed the economic, political, and moral problems associated with the endless wars in the Middle East. 

When it came to Pin the Drone on the Warzone, we offered candy as prize to those who participated. Students were surprised to hear that there was American interventionism happening in almost every one of the countries on the list. Many students had problems even pronouncing some of the names and only one (a student from the region) knew the names of all the countries listed. He was very appreciative about everything we were doing and would have signed up had he not been a graduating senior. The students at NC State were very receptive to the idea of ending the war but didn't know what they could do to stop it. We told them to talk about the problem with their friends & family, contact their representatives, and have their opinions be heard.