FORT COLLINS – Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is responding to claims that Colorado State University’s new proposed gun ban would improve safety for students, faculty and staff at the school.
“Students, faculty and staff of the University have every reason to expect that sweeping changes to current policy are backed up by reason and logic, and that when public safety experts issue an endorsement of such a ban, they are using solid research and statistics, and acting in good faith to preserve the safety of their campus population,” SCCC wrote in a letter to Colorado State University’s President Anthony Frank. “No greater disparity between fact and expectation could be imagined.”
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Officials released a copy of the proposed gun ban on January 20, and solicited feedback with a deadline of January 29. (Click here to read CSU’s proposed weapons policy.)
“We were only too happy to offer our feedback,” said David Burnett, a spokesman for SCCC. “This ban makes zero sense when you look at the crime rates since concealed carry began. No thinking person looking at the facts can conclude a gun ban would improve safety. Either they’re not looking at the facts, or they’re not thinking.”
“CSU has followed state law and allowed licensed concealed carry on campus since statewide concealed carry reform was enacted in 2003,” said Jim Manley, SCCC Colorado State Director. “Over the last seven years, the 25,000 students at CSU have grown comfortable with the idea that self-defense on campus is no less important, and no more threatening, than self-defense off-campus. Not a single incident of gun theft or gun misuse by a licensee has been reported since concealed carry became an everyday occurrence at CSU in 2003.”
CSU’s Board of Governors is expected to enact the policy at its February 23 meeting according to the Denver Post, despite student leaders voting twice to keep the current policy of allowing concealed carry on campus by licensed permit holders.
Meanwhile the pro-gun group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is threatening to sue if CSU follows through with its gun ban. In a February 1 press conference, attorney Terry Ryan vowed a lawsuit “sooner and not later,” stating that the Board of Governors is not elected and has no authority to suspend rights granted by the state of Colorado.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is already involved in pending litigation against Colorado University for enforcing a firearms ban on campus. Oral arguments on the case are scheduled to take place on March 23, 2010. (Click here to read SCCC’s Notice of Appeal on CU lawsuit.)
SCCC’s full letter is available in PDF format here.
For media inquiries, contact David Burnett or Jim Manley
