President of Students at CSUN Turns In His Gun

NORTHRIDGE — After a flap with campus police, Cal State Northridge student body President Joaquin Macias voluntarily turned over a handgun Friday for safekeeping by authorities until he moves off campus.

Macias gave the .40-caliber Glock to CSUN Police Chief Marcus Hissong after an allegation that Macias had been keeping the gun in his campus apartment--a felony.

“I didn’t want to have any question about where it is,” said Macias, 24, who is set to graduate in the spring.

Macias said he bought the weapon last December for personal protection, but that he kept it at a friend’s off-campus apartment and had never brought it onto university grounds.

Having worked as resident assistant in CSUN dorms, Macias said, “I’m well aware of the policy surrounding firearms.”

Macias denied an allegation by some campus police officers that university administrators had tipped him off that police were investigating, giving him time to get rid of a gun if he had one.

“I found out about them wanting to question me in advance from another student,” Macias said.

But that information was irrelevant, he said, because he did not have the gun in his apartment.

CSUN spokesman John Chandler said Friday that no CSUN administrators had acted improperly in the case.

Campus detectives began investigating Monday after someone told police that Macias was keeping a weapon in his on-campus apartment. Ron Kopita, CSUN vice president for student affairs, said the case began to fall apart when the tipster later disavowed to investigators any knowledge of a gun.

Macias said he bought the weapon in December from a gun dealer in the San Fernando Valley. He declined to say how much he paid for the used gun, but it usually retails for about $600 new.

He denied an earlier suggestion by the university spokesman that the gun was intended for protection in the wake of Macias’ tumultuous election to office in March, saying that he purchased it two months before he began campaigning.

“It’s for general protection,” Macias said. “I have had threats before.”

Asked how the weapon would provide him protection while being kept off-campus, away from where he lives, studies and works, Macias said that it was not necessarily for immediate protection.

“I might take it to the range now and then,” he said, and then keep the weapon at home when he moves off campus.

Chandler, the CSUN spokesman, said administrators were pleased with Friday’s developments.

“I think it’s a good resolution for us all,” he said.