Colorado Court of Appeals: CU gun ban violates state laws
Posted: 04/15/2010 12:41:39 PM MDT
Judges with the Colorado Court of Appeals says students and employees at the University of Colorado should be able to pack heat on campus.
In a ruling issued today, the court sided with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a gun-rights group that sued CU, arguing that a 1994 university policy banning concealed weapons from its campuses violates state gun laws.
Attorneys for the group pointed to the Concealed Carry Act of 2003, which says no local government can adopt an ordinance to limit state concealed carry rights. In the opinion, the judges wrote that the Concealed Carry Act applies to universities.
Today's ruling revives a lawsuit that had been dismissed last spring by El Paso County District Judge G. David Miller, who said he found nothing in the state constitution that would stop CU from ordering a campus gun ban.
The ruling does not mean people will immediately be able to bring guns to campus. Instead, it sends the case back to the lower courts - in this case, to Miller -- a process that can take two to three months. Miller, this time taking into consideration the higher court's opinion on the Concealed Carry Act, would also need to rule in favor of the student gun right's group for the ban to be reversed.
Like state law, gun owners would still need a concealed-carry permit to legally bring their weapons on campus.
CU officials might appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. The Board of Regents will discuss how to proceed at a meeting next week, said CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue.
"For us, this is not so much an issue about guns or no guns," McConnellogue said. "This is an issue of the autonomy of the Board of Regents to govern CU campuses. That autonomy is set out in the constitution. The regents are in the best position to make these decisions."
The CU Board of Regents banned weapons in 1970 and, in 1994, strengthened its policy requiring that students be expelled and employees be fired if found guilty of using a weapon to "intimidate, harass, injure or otherwise interfere with the learning and working environment of the university."
Since then, the weapons issues hasn't come up for another vote - although students protesting the ban have made their pitch to the regents.
Attorney Jim Manley, who represents Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, said at the very least people with concealed-carry permits should be able to keep guns in their cars while on the CU campus - which is now against university rules. Manley argued to the Court of Appeals that CU is violating students' constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
In response, CU attorney Patrick O'Rourke argued the law does not apply because CU is a constitutionally created institution of higher education. While the Board of Regents is part of the state government, it is not a "local government" like a city or county, he said.
The state Legislature passed a law in 2003 allowing concealed weapons to be carried by permit in most parts of the state, including college campuses. But then-state Attorney General Ken Salazar issued a formal opinion that the CU regents' order trumped state law.
Nationwide, 26 states ban concealed weapons on any school property. Twenty-three states, including Colorado, allow individual campuses to decide for themselves. A Utah Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that colleges are not an exception to a state law allowing concealed weapons on state property.
Some students have argued they would feel safer if they had concealed-carry rights on campus, and it could help prevent rapes and other violent attacks - citing the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech University that left 33 people dead in 2007.
"It seems really odd to me that a college campus is the only place where a rapist, or a criminal, has a government guarantee that none of his potential victims will be armed," said Gregory Carlson, chairman of the College Republicans on CU's Boulder campus.
He said he agrees with the appeals court's opinion, and thinks CU's weapons ban is unconstitutional. "If you feel safe in a supermarket or a movie theater, you shouldn't worry about legal citizens having a gun on campus," Carlson said.
Read more: http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_14889133?source=most_viewed#ixzz0lDhiJglk
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“The CU Board of Regents banned weapons in 1970…” (
Originally Posted by MrPrena
