Georgia’s Governor recently explained his veto of a “campus carry” bill in part by quoting the University of Virginia:

Perhaps the most enlightening evidence of the historical significance of prohibiting weapons on a college campus is found in the minutes of October 4, 1824, Board of Visitors of the newly created University of Virginia. Present for that meeting were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, along with four other members. In that meeting of the Board of Visitors, detailed rules were set forth for the operation of the University which would open several months later. Under the rules relating to the conduct of students, it provided that “No student shall, within the precincts of the University, introduce, keep or use any spirituous or venomous liquors, keep or use weapons or arms of any kind…”¹Governor Nathan Deal, veto statement for HB 859 (2016), viewed 4 May 2016, pdf.

The 1824 Visitors, of course, were referring to “vinous” liquors, i.e. wines. A “venomous” liquor is probably something that involves rattlesnakes and is distilled by Texans. The full paragraph of the Visitors’ minutes reads:

No Student shall, within the precincts of the University, introduce, keep or use any spirituous or vinous liquors, keep or use weapons or arms of any kind, or gunpowder, keep a servant, horse or dog, appear in school with a stick, or any weapon, nor, while in school, be covered without permission of the Professor, nor use tobacco by smoking or chewing, on pain of any of the minor punishments at the discretion of the Faculty, or of the board of Censors, approved by the Faculty.²University of Virginia Board of Visitors, Meeting Minutes (4 October 1824), (viewed 4 May 2016). Other statements, such as a rule about “ardent spirits or wine mixed or unmixed,” confirm that the Visitors are talking about wine.

In addition to banning the possession of arms, the rules also ban the firing of a gun or pistol within the precincts of the University. Those particular meeting minutes contain no prohibition against foot-ball or playing ball, by the way.

Finally, the minor punishments are interesting:

[T]he Minor punishments shall be Restraint within those Precincts, within their own chamber, or in diet; Reproof, by a Professor privately, or in presence of the school of the offender, or of all the schools, a seat of degradation in his school room of longer or shorter duration, Removal to a lower class, Dismission from the schoolroom for the day, imposition of a task, and insubordination to these sentences shall be deemed & punished as Contumacy.³U.Va. Meeting Minutes. “Diet” refers to dining.

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