CSU bans carry

Last week, RMGO and NAGR staff held a News Conference on the CSU campus to render the draft policy -- which bans even permitted citizens from carrying concealed on campus -- null and void.

You can also see the latest news -- including some of the press coverage of that event -- at www.rmgo.org/csu

UNC told their secret "No Guns" policy is not legal

1/24/2010 - Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and Sheriff John Cooke met with UNC to tell them a ban on permit holders on campus was not enforceable.

Expect action on the CSU issue (where a permit holder ban was announced) in the coming days (see above).

1/14/2010 - While CSU is mulling over their potential new policy, some other local colleges are claiming that citizens cannot carry on their campuses.

CSU to ban self defense

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 (12/4/09) recommended to President Frank (who makes the final decision) to ban all firearms on campus.

1. 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.

2. 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?

"I agree with every word. Those education honchos are clearly feebleminded nuts: they are volunteering to become accomplices of the ctiminals. Every school or college that suffered mass killing was in a "no gun" zone.

I have personal experience. As a citizen of one of the Nazi-occupied countries, I came out of WWII a vet of the anti-Nazi underground. My personal sidearm had been a 7.65 mm Walter, nearly useless against a squad of Sicherheitsdienst but useful to fire the last round into my head.

After the war, the country was awash in arms. A small portion from the underground, heaps that the Germans abandoned.

I no longer had any desire to shoot at anything, even paper targets. But I wanted to keep the pistol as a souvenir. That required a permit from the police. Like any sane adult citizen without a police record, I got one for the asking and an equivalent of $5. The permit entitled me to carry the gun as I saw fit (including concealed), where I saw fit; no restrictions. So many people wore concealed arms, AND THERE WAS VIRTUALLY NO VIOLENT CRIME. I could walk alone a kilometer through a darkened city park at 2 a.m. (with the gun in the clothes drawer at home) with no fear of being attacked:

The potential crook knew I could have a more potent gun as well as being a better shot.

However, the permit was duly registered by the police. It did not make any difference in 1945 but when the communists had their coup, all they had to do was to go down the list and collect all the arms except those of their henchmen. The state-promoted crime went sky high and forty years of slavery followed for every non-communist who did not succeed in bailing out as I did. (Some were shot at the border; the survivors went to jail for the attempt to escape for some 15 to 20 years.)

Taking guns away from decent people is criminal.

Dr. K. A. Skapa
Denver, Colorado

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.

It is perfectly clear that this potential policy (to be official, CSU President Tony Frank must make the decision) is not in harmony with state 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."

RMGO pushed CSU to recognize the right to carry in 2001, and has been on the leading edge of the issue ever since.

What you can do: Call/E-mail/Fax CSU President Tony Frank's office, and POLITELY urge him to do NOTHING.... leave the policy alone, as there is no problem.

Though recently Colorado State University has been in the limelight, this is not the first time a Colorado university has been confronted with firearms issues.

Though during the 9-year battle to pass "Shall Issue" concealed carry bills sponsored by the NRA frequently had "no carry" provisions for all colleges and universities, there has never been a statewide law banning carry on campus for permit holders.

In 2001, during a summer of serial rapes in Fort Collins, the CSU Chief of Police claimed (in direct contradiction to state law) that citizens and students with permits would not be allowed to carry on campus.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners worked to secure a permit for a female student, and held a news conference at the CSU Oval, where we challenged CSU's Chief and his policy.

CSU, of course, backed down, because state law clearly allows permit holders to carry on state property. But since the news conference happened just prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the story didn't have long legs.

Since then, there has been a movement to allow concealed carry on campus. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus has worked to allow self defense around the country, including CSU.

Colorado State University's Assault on Gun Owners

UNC told their secret "No Guns" policy is not legal

CSU to ban self defense