A town hall meeting concerning the CU’s recently-adopted Concealed Carry Act took place on campus Tuesday afternoon to familiarize faculty, staff and students with the new law.
In the Aspen Room located in the UMC, a CU-centric audience sat in on the meeting, held from noon to 1 p.m.. Chancellor Philip DiStefano, Provost Russell Moore, University Counsel Senior Consultant John Sleeman and CUPD Commander Robert Axmacher were available to answer questions and concerns.
A sign outside Welcomefest Aug. 25 prohibiting concealed weapons as well as other things. CU recently held a town hall meeting to discuss the issue. (CU Independent File/Robert R. Denton)
The Board of Regents passed the CCA in March, when it was decided that a public university didn’t have the right to ban concealed carry permit holders from bringing guns on campus.
The university has since amended the housing contract to state that anyone with a Concealed Carry Permit must sign a housing agreement, and will be placed in graduate student housing.
Chancellor DiStefano said that he thought the best way to continue to modify the CCA to ensure campus safety was to wait until the November Regent elections took place.
“I truly believe the best way to proceed is through the legislature,” DiStefano said.
DiStefano said that student groups were not being left out in the decision-making process, and that efforts had been made to reach out to CUSG.
In response to several requests that were made in favor of a list being provided to professors disclosing names of permit-holding students in their classes, Commander Axmacher said that there would be no list, and that the Boulder county sheriff is the lone person with those names. Sheriffs can only disclose the names of CCP holders to other law enforcement officials.
Provost Russell Moore told the audience that the presence of a CCP holder should not affect classes.
“[It’s] just as if you wouldn’t cancel class because someone is six foot tall with piercings and spikes on them,” Moore said. “You can’t cancel class because of a person’s appearance or political stance.”
Garett Kain, a 19-year-old sophomore political science major, said that repealing the CCA would hinder individuals’ second amendment right.
“It would disarm residents’ abilities to protect themselves,” Kain said. “I’m here to debate my point of view because I have some experience around firearms, but I also know that the faculty has my safety at heart.”
Concerns were raised about having guns in potentially hazardous environments such as a lab. Sleeman said that this was not taken into account when the law was formed.
“Unfortunately when they wrote the law they didn’t think about that,” Sleeman said.
Alana Wilson, a 26-year-old graduate student in the geography department was one of many people there against CCA.
“I understand the debate around the issue, but I also think that guns shouldn’t be allowed on college campuses, and that the law needs to be repealed,” Wilson said.
Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Bethany Morris at Bethany.morris@colorado.edu.
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1 comment
I would have to disagree with Alana Wilson, for sure. College students are adults. Why should their Second Amendment rights be hindered by the fact that they’re taking classes at an “Institution”? As responsible adults, they have the right to protect themselves at school and anywhere else they have the right to concealed carry, as long as they abide by the state’s law.