Textbooks? Check. Gun? Double check. Students at the University of Colorado are being told their guns are now welcome in the classroom thanks to a newly overturned state law surrounding the Denver movie theater shooting last month, but their dormitories are still off limits.
Complying with a state Supreme Court ruling in March that overturned a 1994 ban on firearms on school campuses, reluctant school officials in Boulder have compromised by providing off-campus housing strictly for those wishing to live with their guns.
They say the students it would accommodate are a part of .6 per cent of the faculty, staff and students who have a concealed carry permit and that 96 per cent of incoming freshmen are already ineligible for the permit due to age.
Still, the weapons’ welcome has left many unnerved.
‘Yeah, it makes me very uncomfortable, sure,’ Cindy Rosenthal, an Arizona mother helping move in her freshmen daughter told NPR this week. ‘I definitely would not feel safe if they allowed guns on campus, in the halls. I would not be comfortable with that at all.’
Concern over the firearms’ permission also caused one university professor to threaten cancelling class if he learned any of his students were carrying a firearm inside.
Professor Jerry Paterson’s threat on Tuesday was overturned by the university’s chancellor Philip P DiStefano who threatened disciplinary action to his faculty if any such action were taken, accusing them of being in violation of their contracts.
‘I believe we have taken reasonable steps to adhere to the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court, while balancing that with the priority of providing a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff,’ said Mr DiStefano in a statement.
Mr Peterson, a physics professor and chairman of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, said he would stand by his own policy on classroom weapons and argued a student with a gun would be a classroom distraction.
The permission of firearms comes amid a nationwide debate on gun control after a gunman who police identified as a former University of Colorado graduate student killed 12 people when he opened fire at a suburban Denver movie theater last month.
Suspected gunman James Holmes, 24, had been a neuroscience graduate student at the school and was living in a privately owned apartment off campus when the attack took place.
Law enforcement officers have maintained their right to carry weapons on the Colorado campus.
University officials said students with gun permits can request their relocation to the university-owned married and graduate student housing across two of the university’s four campuses, the obliging campuses being in Boulder and Colorado Springs.
‘Obviously, our prime imperative is to provide a safe learning environment,’ university spokesman Ken McConnellogue said. ‘This balances the requirements of Colorado law with that environment.’
Concealed firearms will be permitted in all university buildings, with the exception of large, ticketed public events such as concerts and football games. Any visible guns, knives and explosives are still prohibited.
David Burnett, spokesman with Students For Concealed Carry, a nationwide organization of college students that advocates less-restrictive gun policies on campuses, said Colorado’s rule was largely positive, but it was still reviewing how the policy will be applied.
‘We want safety and security that goes beyond (no firearms allowed) stickers on doors and the goodwill of criminals to abide by them,’ Burnett said. ‘James Holmes certainly didn’t abide by the theater’s no firearms ban.’
The university’s vice chancellor for student affairs Deb Coffin told NPR that they concerned not of the students with concealed carry permits, but the weapons falling into the wrong hands.
‘We’re actually more concerned about someone who’s not experienced or trained in the use of a handgun getting access to one by accident or on purpose and possibly causing injury to themselves or others.’
Incoming freshman Joe Ramsburger from Florida told NPR he understands why guns won’t be allowed in his dormitory, but also understands why others would want them.
‘Especially with what happened in Aurora a couple of weeks ago, and Virginia Tech, and all of the stuff that’s happened on college campuses now … You never know what’s going to happen.’
Elite.
