BOULDER, Colo. -- Some students at the University of Colorado say the university’s weapons ban puts them at risk, and they have found an unusual way to protest the policy.

Dozens of students reportedly wore empty holsters on campus, Monday, as part of a silent protest.

Jim Manley, a CU law student, organized the protest, and said the weapons prohibition merely keeps law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves and facilitates mass crimes such as the shootings at Virginia Tech.

"The holster represents the fact that students, staff and faculty are defenseless when they're on campus," said Manley. “People who would be able to carry guns in their normal day-to-day lives are denied that right by the University’s policy.”

Dave Kopel with the Independence Institute, a “pro-freedom” think tank based in Golden, spoke to law students Monday about other University’s policies.

He said schools such as CSU allow weapons on campus and have never had an issue.

“The University of Colorado has made itself into a safe zone for predators,” Kopel said. “Criminals bent on killing a lot of people at once are guaranteed they’ll have no law-abiding citizens who can fight back."

A CU spokesman said the weapons ban is a long-standing policy that applies to everything from firearms to knives to paintball guns, and that it is important to consider that it takes police officers hours of training to respond to an armed threat effectively.

“It’s based on the consensus that weapons on campus, when you have the mix of young people and energy and excitement and passion that they embody, throwing firearms into that mix is not a good mix,” said Bronson Hilliard, spokesman for the University of Colorado. “Just having guns around, extra guns around, is only going to mean extra shots fired. It’s not going to make anybody safer.”

But students at campuses across the country have organized similar holster protests.

Manley spread the word about the protest Monday through the online networking site facebook.com, and said he had e-mails from dozens of students interested in taking part.

He said he hoped the holster protest would help create a dialogue to change university policy.