An annual competition in which UNL honors students use foam dart guns to "assassinate" each other was canceled after University Police approached a possible masked gunman at Oldfather Hall on Wednesday.
Officers received a message at 1:55 p.m. from a student who had gotten an alarming text message from a friend.
The text mentioned the possibility of a man in the class having a gun, said Juan Franco, vice chancellor for Student Affairs of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a press release.
Police arrived at the scene, guns drawn and spoke to the man who wore a ski-mask.
But the gun wasn't real.
It was a gun that shoots foam darts. The gun was just one of the many used in a game sponsored by the Neihardt Residence Center at UNL.
University Police canceled the game, citing security concerns. Signs for the event posted in Neihardt are being taken down. The foam guns are being confiscated.
The game, formerly called "Assassins" but changed to "Live Free or Neihardt" this year, begins with each player receiving another player's name on a sheet of paper as a target. Players then try to "assassinate" their targets by shooting them with the foam darts or hitting them with a Styrofoam cup. When a player is assassinated, he or she gives their target to the assassin, who becomes the assassin's new target. Players can be assassinated everywhere except bathrooms, classrooms, the players' dorm rooms and dining halls.
The game has been played for several years at Neihardt and hasn't encountered this problem before.
"If (Live Free or Neihardt) were being done 10 or 12 years ago, I don't know how many people would be concerned," said Doug Zatechka, director of University Housing said. "But it's a couple of weeks after a shooting at Northern Illinois University and less than a year after Virginia tech."
University officers visited Neihardt around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday to shut the game down, said Brian Curtis, a freshmen chemical engineering major.
"Since there have been college shootings before, (the police) are really taking it seriously," Curtis said.
"Having an event with people running around with fake guns is counterproductive."
The game was "not something that can be conducted on a university campus right now," said Owen Yardley, chief of University Police.
"It puts police officers in a very precarious position," Yardley said. "They have to determine on the fly if there is a potentially dangerous situation."
Safety and security at UNL's campuses is everybody's responsibility, Yardley said.
Yardley and Zatechka both said they didn't think any of the students had malicious intents.
"I don't think it's a good idea to be doing these kinds of things with the current climate on college campuses," Zatechka said. "Everybody's nerves are raw."
adamtempleton@dailynebraskan.com
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