Colorado State University To Ban Self Defense
Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:18 PMColorado State University To Ban Self Defense
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners
Colorado - -(AmmoLand.com)- Colorado State has been rattling it’s empty saber scabbard for years about a “No Firearms Policy”, but this week the (bad) idea reached a fevered pitch.
After the CSU Faculty Council (read: Liberal, freedom-hating professors) recommended to CSU President Tony Frank to ban firearms on campus, the student government quickly stood on the side of freedom and asked Frank to leave the policy as it is (i.e. permit holders, including students, can carry).
Then, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, himself first elected as sheriff solely due to the concealed carry issue (the previous RINO sheriff had refused to issue permits), publicly told CSU that his office (which controls the only jail in the county) would not enforce any ban on permit holders, wouldn’t participate in detaining any valid permit holders, and his jail would not hold them. He also added that he didn’t think CSU had the legal authority to enforce a ban that is contrary to state law.
And, despite a barrage of letters and calls from State Legislators, citizens and CSU Alumni, the CSU Board of Governors today recommended to President Frank (who makes the final decision) to ban all firearms on campus.
Understand that there are a few different issues here:
- Banning faculty and students, via employment contracts and student code of conduct contracts, is an end-run around the state policy, and may or may not be legal.
- Banning all firearms on campus, even with a permit, is a much longer step. And clearly, this is not legal, as Colorado law doesn’t allow that, and even a liberal judge (the Meyers decision in 2004) ruled that Denver couldn’t make it’s own concealed carry rules, despite being a “home rule” city. How, then, could a taxpayer-funded public university?
Colorado University’s Board of Regents voted many years ago to make their campuses “gun free”, but CU’s Regents are constitutionally created, and elected. CSU has nothing of the sort. So unelected bureaucrats are making policy in direct and flagrant opposition to Colorado law.
Did the Colorado legislature, in 2003′s SB24, intend to have permit holders walk on campus armed?
As the only professional pro-gun lobbyist to endure the 9-year battle for “Shall Issue” concealed carry in Colorado, RMGO Executive Director Dudley Brown made it clear that this issue was addressed, routinely.
“This issue was addressed routinely, and though the NRA tried many times to include campus-carry bans, the legislature rejected it,” said Brown, a gun lobbyist for the last 16 years. “The final bill, passed in 2003, explicitly allowed permit holders to carry on campus, but apparently some bureaucrats believe their students should be defenseless.”
“Virginia Tech, Columbine High School, and every gun free zone sends one message: it’s a Criminal Safezone, where citizens are defenseless,” Brown said. “We’ll fight this ban in court, as it is clear that liberal academia isn’t going to stand for freedom.”
Yeah, Just what we need more Gun Free Zones
About:
Based in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is Colorado’s largest state-based gun lobby. It is a group solely dedicated to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Our strategy is simple: don’t give an inch. Visit: www.rmgo.org
