The touchy issue of whether concealed weapons can be carried on University of Colorado campuses will be decided by the state’s highest court.
The Colorado Supreme Court has accepted a CU appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed carrying of concealed weapons on campus.
At issue is CU’s contention that it has the constitutional and statutory authority to enact safety measures for its campuses. Its gun ban was enacted in 1994. (Unlike other state colleges, CU and its board of regents were created by the original state constitution.)
A three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled last April that CU’s campus gun ban violated state law (read the opinion). Three students, represented by a Texas-based national group named Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, had sued to overturn the ban. Their case was dismissed by an El Paso County district judge but revived by the appeals court.
The regents on June 25 voted 5-4 to appeal the case, after being urged to do so by President Bruce Benson.
Four Democratic regents along with Republican Tilman Bishop of Grand Junction voted for the appeal; the other four Republican regents voted against it. (See story about the regents’ vote.)
After the Court of Appeals ruling last spring, Colorado State University and the Community College System both repealed their campus gun bans.
i think that having a weapon is a big part of protecting yourself. Of course there will be dangers, but you have to measure the odds. If there are guys out there to try to kill you or just hurt you what will you do? You need to be protected. i am not saying that it is bad, but in many cases it is good, and you need to measure the facts. What do the students need? That is your question?
The CU Regents seem to think that they are ‘above the law’ or actually are the law.
It is the now the very clear duty of the Colorado Supreme Court to demonstrate that they are neither the “law” or “above the law” and re-afirm the right for CU students to lawfully defend themselves. The right of self-defense is after all, mankind’s oldest law.
Why under any reasoning whatsoever should the CU Campus advertise itself to be populated exclusively by ‘unarmed victms’ to those psychopaths who would think to come on campus and attack those there?
If a ‘psycho killer’ enages in a ‘shoot up’ of the campus people I want an honest citizen with a CCW to stop it. Why do the CU regents not want the campus to be able to protect itself? It simply makes no sense at all.
The CU Regents can only be motivated by ‘arrogance and ignorance’ a total sepration from the real world out there and thus a resulting indifference to the safety of the students and teachers and others on campus.
CU regents should be assured about the integrity of people like me who possess concealed-carry permits and carry concealed guns. After being harassed by two members of one family, one of whom threatened twice to kill me, I got required firearms training, applied for a carry permit, passed background checks by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and began carrying my concealed gun.
I also got permanent restraining orders against both people who were harassing me. However, such orders are only pieces of paper which often are violated by restrainees, some of whom proceed to carry out their deadly, declared intentions. Such lethal criminal attacks unfold in only seconds, but police might take minutes to respond and protect me, no matter how dedicated they are to protect citizens. Now I can protect myself to the best of my ability. Last year, I renewed my permit after more training and background checks.
We who carry concealed guns know very well that a concealed-carry permit only allows us a legally-sanctioned option to protect ourselves or others. Such permits are not a James-Bond-style license to kill. We permit holders do not adopt a “Dirty Harry” make-my-day attitude toward other people in any situation. We also know that such permits do not endow us with law-enforcement authority in any form.
All we can do with legally-concealed guns is protect ourselves or others when all other options fail.