Sheriff vows not to enforce campus disarmament policy
I plan on going back to school when I move back to CO. Guess where I will not be attending.Colorado State University is one of the few institutions of higher learning outside Utah where licensed carry of a defensive firearm is not against either school rules (in Utah, state law forbids colleges and universities from putting such rules in place), or state law. That may soon change.
Currently, Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colorado is a campus that allows legal concealed carry by CCW permit holders. The faculty has made noises that the policy should be changed to sharply restrict weapons to "security officials guarding high-profile visitors". Professor Richard Eykholt, chairman of CSU’s Faculty Council, supports the change stating: "Most uses of weapons are in the heat of the moment where the person later regrets it."Good of them to at least be willing to allow armed defense of those deemed sufficiently important (more important, certainly, than mere students, faculty, staff, etc.).
A funny thing happened on the way to the defenseless victim zone, though--the student body came out overwhelmingly against it.
At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, public safety experts and the president's cabinet support a gun ban.Obviously, a student senate vote is not binding on the school, which is free to act counter to the expressed wishes of the students. Still, they asked--presumably for a reason.
Before the decision is made, however, the school wants to hear what students think.
Wednesday night, the student governing body voted 21-3 in support of keeping CSU a conceal-and-carry campus. Five student senators were absent or did not vote.
CSU, being located in Ft. Collins, CO, is in Larimer County. The Sheriff of Larimer County made a trenchant observation about the proposal to ban defensive handgun carry on campus.
"I think whenever you create a gun-free zone, you have an opportunity for criminals to act with impunity," Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said.In what may be the most remarkable part of this story is that Sheriff Alderden is publicly backing that position up--saying that his department will not enforce a campus gun ban.
The Larimer County Sheriff will refuse to help enforce any concealed carry ban at CSU, student government officials said Wednesday, but permit holders packing heat and the Sheriff's office have little to worry about if student government has any say in the matter.Good for Sheriff Jim Alderden (who sounds to me like an Oath Keeper, in every sense of the term), good for the Larimer County residents who elected him, and good for the CSU student senate. Let's hope the school administration is wise enough to heed them.
At its weekly Senate meeting, the Associated Students of CSU passed a resolution supporting the school's existing policy allowing concealed weapons on campus by a vote of 21-3, with one senator abstaining.
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During discussion of the resolution, Sen. David Ambrose, who helped draft the document, read an e-mail statement by Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden saying Alderden's office would "not hold or detain a valid permit holder who violates that policy, nor would his department have anything to do with enforcing that policy."
Alderden also said he did not believe unelected university officials have any authority to enact such a ban, which would "directly counter" Colorado law.
Update: So much for the will of the student body--the University's Board of Governors voted for mandated defenselessness.
Colorado State University joined most major colleges nationwide in forbidding concealed weapons on campus Friday in a decision that pitted faculty asking for a ban against students demanding the right to carry guns.I wonder if they'll remember to not call the Sheriff's office to help enforce their disarmed victim zone.
The university's Board of Governors voted 7-0 Friday to outlaw firearms on its campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo.