Concealed Guns Now Allowed at Oregon Universities

If you are a college student, how safe would you feel knowing that the people around you on campus may be armed with loaded handguns?  In class?  At football games?  At on-campus parties?  In university judicial hearings?  Even in campus daycare?

You should be concerned.  Among college-aged people (ages 18-30, to include most grad students), 81.5% of homicides and 46.5% of suicides are by firearms.  Homicide and suicide are the number 2 and number 3 causes of death in that age range (behind unintentional deaths, where firearms are about 1%) (based on CDC WISQARS data for 2008).  Percentages increase if you drop the age to undergrad ages (18-22), and the difference in ranking between accidental and homicide drop dramatically.

Prior to this week, the Oregon university system had a policy against possession of firearms on campus, with the exception of law enforcement.  Not anymore. 

NRA-sponsored legislative challenges to get guns on campus were rampant across the nation in 2011.

In the words of Paul Helmke, who had directed the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence until recently, “There’s a reason why this kind of wrongheaded legislation has now failed 56 times in 30 states. Parents, faculty, university leaders, and students understand that forcing more guns into more places is dangerous and unnecessary.” 

Quoting John Woods, founder of Students for Gun-Free Schools, whose girlfriend was murdered at Virginia Tech:  “Guns on campus is an ideological agenda that has been pushed by people who spend little or no time on college campuses, while it is opposed by students, faculty, staff, law enforcement, parents, university administrators, mental health professionals, and the survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting.”

College students, administrators, and faculty overwhelmingly oppose guns on campus.  As of June 16, 2011, over 275 colleges, universities and associations in 36 states have signed a resolution to keep campuses gun-free and have turned out in large numbers to oppose such laws at legislative hearings.

But the gun lobby’s failed attempts to force institutes of higher learning to accept weapons on their grounds hasn’t stopped them.  Instead, they are now searching for judicial avenues around the country.

In 2009, a student at Western Oregon University with a valid concealed weapons permit was caught carrying a concealed handgun on campus against school policy.  He was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped.  Nonetheless, the extremist pro-gun lobby group, Oregon Firearms Federation, filed a lawsuit.  To illustrate their extremism, they advertise that they are “Oregon’s only no compromise lobbying group” who are “fighting the freedom  haters in court.”  The case went to Appeals court.  Now, sadly, the 3-judge panel on the Oregon Appeals Court has made a ruling, overturning the prohibition of guns on university property. 

The Oregon State Board of Higher Education hasn’t yet decided if they’ll appeal further.

Here is Ceasefire Oregon’s official statement on the ruling:

September 29, 2011 

Ceasefire Oregon Statement on Oregon Firearms Ed. Foundation v. Bd. of Higher Ed.  

An Oregon Court of Appeals decision announced on September 28 holds that the Oregon State Board of Higher Education lacks the necessary legal authority to regulate firearms on Oregon college campuses. The court invalidated a longstanding ban on guns on campus but also noted that the Second Amendment had nothing to do with its decision. 

Ceasefire Oregon urgently calls on Governor Kitzhaber to seek, and the Oregon Legislature to enact, a legislative ban on guns in Oregon schools. Ceasefire Oregon concurs in the judgment of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators that guns on campuses pose an elevated and unacceptable risk to students and staff. 

The pro-gun extremists think you’ll feel more comfortable and safer knowing there are armed people around you to play Wyatt Earp on your behalf.  They are also trying to remove or weaken any and all restrictions, including further background checks and training requirements for concealed weapons permits, nationwide.  But accidents happen every day, and there are plenty of violent and reactive people out there.  Where there are guns, there are gun crimes and accidents.

So the next time you’re at an Oregon football game, on-campus party, or just sitting in class, and someone gets belligerent, drunk, or appears suspicious in some manner, take a moment and wonder if he’s packing a loaded handgun.  It’s legal now.


UPDATE (10/4/11):  A related article, written by Elise Gautier (Board President of Ceasefire Oregon) and Penny Okamoto (Executive Director):  http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/10/student_safety_oregon_should_b.html