Colorado’s Campus Carry: 12 years and no bloodbaths

Good day all. I wasn’t aware of this, but it’s been legal for people to carry firearms on Colorado’s collage campuses for 12 years. They need to have a carry permit, (and we can discuss that later), and there are exceptions.

Still, the there have been no crimes committed by law abiding people carrying guns on collage campuses. There have been a number of incidents where women carrying guns dissuaded rapists from attacking them. In an article in the Washington Post, David Kopel notes that people lawfully carrying guns haven’t been slaughtering each other as well as others. Here are some of the details from his article:

For most of Colorado’s history, firearms were legal on public university campuses. That began to change in 1970, due to concerns about campus violence by terrorist organizations such as the Weather Underground.

So the first thing the statists do is make sure that no one has any way of stopping the terrorists. Typical big government thinking of course. It certainly did nothing to slow down the Weatherman and the SLA. This changed in Colorado in 2003.

In 2003, the Colorado legislature enacted the Concealed Carry Act. The statute was written by County Sheriffs of Colorado, the organization which represents all 62 of Colorado’s elected Sheriffs. The Act passed with broad bipartisan support, including all Republicans and almost every Democrat except some from Denver and Boulder. The National Rifle Association and the Firearms Coalition of Colorado supported the Act.

For those that may not know, Boulder and Denver are cities with high rates of infestations by Moonbats.

According to the Concealed Carry Act, a carry permit is valid “throughout the state,” with certain exceptions. Private property owners can ban guns on their property. (For example, the Aurora movie theater that was attacked in July 2012 had exercised its right to forbid licensed carry.)

And the last I heard, the holding company that owns the Aurora movie theater is in the process of being sued out of existence. If I recall correctly, there were several people there who had CCW’s but followed the law and the wishes of the theater and left their guns at home or in their cars.

At K-12 schools, guns may be in automobiles, but not carried outside the automobile.

The caveat to that is, “Unless a whack job shows up and starts shooting. Then feel free to retrieve your firearm and blast the psycho bastard.”

Government buildings can prohibit licensed carry, as long as they make themselves into genuine gun-free zones: public entrances to such buildings must have security personnel with metal detectors.

In other words, if the building is going to keep people from carrying guns, they are responsible for everyone’s safety and security. Then, there are the universities.

The bill has no special exemption for public institutions of higher education; an amendment to create such an exemption was proposed on the House floor, and defeated. Of cousre since the Concealed Carry Act requires that a permitee be at least 21 years old, most undergraduates were not eligible for permits.

Generally, they would be in their senior year, or they didn’t enroll until they were out of school for a few years. Former members of the Military are a case in point. They enlist at 18, serve 4 or so years and then attend collage. I suspect a few of them are carrying, both men and women.

When the Concealed Carry Act became law on July 1, 2003, Colorado State University (30,000 students; main campus in Fort Collins) promptly complied. In 12 years of licensed carry at CSU, there have never been any problems caused by licensed carriers.

What? No drunken shootouts? No one going nuts and blasting a professor for a bad grade? This must be a mistake. And then we have the University of Colorado.

Things were different at the University of Colorado (30,000 students, main campus in Boulder). Then-Attorney General Ken Salazar issued an non-binding opinion stating that the University of Colorado did not have to obey the Concealed Carry Act.

First, Ken Salazar is a Democrat. And second, and third. He clams to be a “Moderate” and we all know that means someone who has no actual principles. And of course, Boulder.

CU enforced its gun prohibition vigorously, based on a 1994 Regents’ policy that guns are “offensive” to the University’s “values.” So, for example, getting from one side of Boulder to the other often requires driving through a public street which cuts through campus. University police would arrest drivers on that street who had a licensed handgun in their automobile.

Nothing like unleashing your own jack booted thugs is there? I have no idea how those cases ended, but I suspect, it didn’t end well for the university.

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus brought a lawsuit a few years later, represented by attorney Jim Manley (a recent CU Law graduate) of the Mountain States Legal Foundation. SCCC was founded in 2008, on the night of the Virginia Tech murders, and advocates for campus safety for students.

Good. Of course, they had to deal with the usual suspects pretending to be impartial judges who are sworn to uphold the laws of Colorado, the Constitution of Colorado and the Constitution of the United States.

SCCC lost in the state district court, won in the Court of the Appeals, and the case went to the Colorado Supreme Court. In 2012 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that the University of Colorado must obey the Concealed Carry Act. This was consistent with precedent that CU has no special exemption from civil rights statutes.

You can bet the Moonbats didn’t take that laying down.

But in 2013, a bill was introduced to outlaw licensed carry on all campuses.

That was after the Democrats took control of all parts of the Colorado government and proceeded to turn the state into a “Workers Paradise.”

Rape survivor Amanda Collins testified before the Senate State Affairs Committee about how a ban on campus carry had affected her life. As a 21-year-old, Ms Collins had a Nevada defensive handgun license. But the University of Nevada at Reno did not allow licensed firearms on campus. She was raped in the parking garage of the campus police station, which was closed for the night.

When seconds count, the police have gone home for the night. Then we had the response by former State Senator Evie Hudak.

State Senator Evie Hudak told Collins that if Collins had been carrying a gun, statistics showed that the gun would have been taken from her.

Actually, statistics show that fewer than one percent of defensive gun use results in the defender’s gun being taken.

There’s a reason why so few people lose their guns. Most of the time, they are carrying them concealed so the criminal isn’t aware that his target is armed until the hollow points rip into his guts. I can’t say this with any certainty, but the few cases where the criminal did get the gun, it was openly carried such as the way police carry their guns. People who carry guns are taught not to pull them unless you are intending to shoot. Only police draw their weapons as a matter of course and their intent is to imply to the suspect that if they cause any trouble, they are going to get shot. There is a big difference here.

“Respectfully senator, you weren’t there,” Collins responded. “Had I been carrying concealed, he wouldn’t have known I had my weapon; and I was there. I know without a doubt in my mind at some point I would’ve been able to stop my attack by using my firearm. He already had a weapon of his own; he didn’t need mine.”

Hudak ignored Collins. In fact she was caught using a tablet to update her Facebook and Twitter accounts with things that had no bearing on the hearings. She eventually resigned her seat rather then be recalled. Due to a quirk in Colorado’s laws, resigning kept the seat from being put up for grabs and the Democrats were able to select her replacement.

In 12 years there has only been one incident involving someone carrying a gun.

There has been one case in which an employee at CU’s dental school was showing off her gun, and accidentally fired it. She was immediately and properly fired.

Guns are not toys. They stay in the holster unless you are taking it out to put away, or if you are in danger and need to use it to protect yourself or others. Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident. This was the only incident shows that people carrying guns lawfully tend to be law abiding and level headed. They know they are assuming a responsibility and they accept it, otherwise they wouldn’t be strapping on a gun.

The Progressives are so terrified of an armed citizenry that they are perfectly willing to see innocent men, women and children robbed, raped and murdered rather then allow people to have a gun. Well to bad for the Moonbats. As I recently wrote, the people have spoken with the votes and their bucks.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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