RMGO Lawsuit against gun ban wins --
CSU backs down
BREAKING NEWS
(Fort Collins, 5/05/2010) Today the CSU Board of
Governor's voted to rescind their illegal ban on concealed carry on campus.
"They didn't have a legal leg to stand on," said Dudley Brown,
Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO). "We told them in
January, in no uncertain terms, that state law did not allow them to create
their own gun ban. Unfortunately, it took a lawsuit to force them to back
down."
RMGO filed suit against CSU's Board of Governors on April
15th, proving that unelected board had no authority to override existing state
law, which explicitly allows permit holders to carry on college campuses.
A day later, a Colorado Appeals Court ruled against CU's ban on carrying.
"This has been a good couple of weeks for law-abiding citizens
who want to defend themselves on Colorado campuses, and a terrible week for
criminals who assume no one is able to defend themselves on campuses," Brown
said. "We're now going to track the policy of every post-secondary education
campus in the state -- every community college, every university, all of them --
and file suit against those who attempt to violate Colorado law."
"The citizens, students and faculty at these facilities should
thank the members and donors of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the organization
responsible for correcting these errant bureaucrats, and Students for Concealed
Carry on Campus, who put a lot of hard work into this battle."
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is Colorado's largest gun rights
organization.
Colorado State University's Assault on Gun Owners
RMGO files suit against CSU for Gun Ban,
while CU's Ban is Overturned on Appeal
(Fort Collins, 4/15/2010) Today Colorado’s largest gun rights organization, Rocky Mountain
Gun Owners, filed a complaint against CSU’s Gun Ban policy, asking a Larimer
County District Court to overrule the Board of Governors.
This comes on the same day that the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed an
earlier court’s ruling on the CU Gun Ban case, clearing the way to what many
legal scholars say is a certain overturning that ban.
“This is a good day for gun owners, and for the safety of students, faculty and
citizens who frequent college campuses,” said Dudley Brown, RMGO’s Executive
Director. “CSU’s Ban only had one legitimate leg to stand on, and now even
that’s gone.”
“CSU is hanging out a shingle that says only criminals are allowed to bring guns
on campus,” Brown said. “It didn’t keep anyone safe at Virginia Tech, it
doesn’t work at schools around the country and it won’t work in Fort Collins.”
RMGO’s suit against CSU is based on three facts:
1. The
Ban is preempted by Colorado law (C.R.S. 18-12-204)
2. The
CSU Board of Governor’s authority does not allow it to conflict with state law
(CRS 23-31-103, which provides that the BOG “has
plenary power to adopt all such ordinances, bylaws, and regulations, not in
conflict with the law”)
3. The Ban is unconstitutional and unenforceable.
The complaint, which was filed late Wednesday, lists a number of citizens as
plaintiffs, including Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at CSU, two student
permit holders and one local businessman permit holder.
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.
First, watch the video by clicking the picture below.
Then, sign our petition against this illegal ban.
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).
More Schools claiming Colorado Law doesn't affect them
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.
Colorado State has been rattling its 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
(12/4/09) recommended to President Frank (who makes the final decision) to ban
all
firearms on campus.
Understand that there are a few different issues here:
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.
Sadly, yet another dirtball ignores the "Gun Free School"
designation and commits violence on innocents. This could have
been avoided by simply allowing teachers to carry.
Carrying on Campus in Colorado
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.
This didn't stop local tyrants, though, from creating those Criminal
Safezones.
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.
Sept. 2001 - CSU student "Annie" (in purple sweater) speaks to
the media, along with RMGO Northern Colorado Director Ray Hickman,
challenging the CSU Chief of Police's policy of "no concealed
handguns on campus". CSU backed down.
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.