In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Oregon CCW at Public Schools
grumpygy
Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
About time this has happened.
quote:Students at Southern Oregon University expressed shock Wednesday after a state appeals court ruled that the Oregon University System can't ban guns on campus.
SOU officials declined to comment on the ruling, which said only the state Legislature is empowered to regulate possession of firearms - but they added they would put new rules in place when they get them from the chancellor of higher education.
Students, however, had plenty of comments. "I don't understand why anyone needs to bring guns on campus when there isn't any threat," said Reanna Culjat, an elementary education sophomore. "The administration should ban them. It makes me feel unsafe. Anyone bringing a gun here should have a background check and register it with the school."
Siding with the plaintiff, the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation of Canby, the appeals court said a 1991 administrative rule by the university system is invalid. The OUS rule said the system may impose sanctions against "any person" for possession and use of firearms on its property, but the court ruled that the higher education system was not authorized by the Legislature to regulate firearms.
Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Firearms Educational Foundation, described the gun ban as "emblematic of all the bureaucrats across the state who just spit in the face of the law and make up their own rules, and in doing that cause great damage to people who are doing nothing wrong."
Having just received the decision hours earlier, OUS was in the process of studying a range of options that would use whatever authority over guns it had to keep campuses safe, said Di Saunders, spokeswoman for the chancellor of higher education.
"We're working with our legal counsel on the implications of the ruling," she said, noting OUS's authority to regulate staff and students through contracts of employment, student rules of conduct and rules about behavior on university property.
"We're making sure we're protecting students and faculty. We do have the right to determine what happens on our property."
If anyone came on campus with a weapon, security officials would confront the person about why they have the weapon, Sanders said, adding that if the person was "brandishing it in a threatening way or didn't have a (concealed weapons) permit, they would call city police.
"If it's visible and is scaring faculty and students, security would check it out. (The ruling) doesn't open it up for everyone to come on campus with a weapon," she said.
Following several campus shootings across the country, security teams at SOU and the six other state campuses established emergency response systems to deal with weapon threats and alert all faculty and students via phone or email. These systems, Saunders said in a news release, "will continue to be in place."
Becky Tyler, an SOU senior in education and American Indian studies, said: "I don't think guns should be on campus. It makes me feel uneasy and creates an atmosphere of fear. If I got an alert, I would run for my car."
Taylor Lore, a senior in economics, said he respects people's right to carry and conceal weapons, but added, "I'm not very excited about the ruling."
"A classroom is no place for firearms," Lore said, "but if someone goes to the effort of getting a permit, they're probably not a loose cannon."
Not all students were opposed to the decision. Asked for her reaction, sophomore Sarah Vonwood said, "cool," although she added there must be limits.
"It's OK, I think, to carry your weapon of choice," she said, "but it definitely needs more regulation."
The three-judge appeals court cited a 1995 law that only the Legislature can regulate firearm possession, which was intended to prevent cities from creating gun bans. OUS is an arm of state government and not a municipality but still should fall under that law, the court decided.
The case came from sanctions in 2009 against a gun-carrying student at Western Oregon University. The school used the authority from a 20-year old administrative rule, but the judges said OUS's rule-making powers were pre-empted by a later state law giving the Legislature sole power to regulate guns.
The judges found that "this particular rule would seem on its face to be the type of regulation that was intended to be pre-empted" by the state law.
In 2004, SOU was in the news over banning guns on campus when conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson was uninvited from a First Amendment Forum after he said he would not comply with a university request that he not bring a gun on campus. Larson had a concealed weapons permit and said the university was abridging his Second Amendment rights by not permitting him to carry a gun.
The Legislature this year considered banning guns on all state campuses, but the proposal didn't advance.
"Our greatest concern is for the safety of our students and the entire campus community," Chancellor George Pernsteiner said. OUS will review its legal options, he said in a news release.
"It's doubtful the Legislature's going to act any time soon - given a split House and very close Senate - on anything controversial to do with guns," state Rep. Buckley, D-Ashland, said late Wednesday.
quote:Students at Southern Oregon University expressed shock Wednesday after a state appeals court ruled that the Oregon University System can't ban guns on campus.
SOU officials declined to comment on the ruling, which said only the state Legislature is empowered to regulate possession of firearms - but they added they would put new rules in place when they get them from the chancellor of higher education.
Students, however, had plenty of comments. "I don't understand why anyone needs to bring guns on campus when there isn't any threat," said Reanna Culjat, an elementary education sophomore. "The administration should ban them. It makes me feel unsafe. Anyone bringing a gun here should have a background check and register it with the school."
Siding with the plaintiff, the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation of Canby, the appeals court said a 1991 administrative rule by the university system is invalid. The OUS rule said the system may impose sanctions against "any person" for possession and use of firearms on its property, but the court ruled that the higher education system was not authorized by the Legislature to regulate firearms.
Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Firearms Educational Foundation, described the gun ban as "emblematic of all the bureaucrats across the state who just spit in the face of the law and make up their own rules, and in doing that cause great damage to people who are doing nothing wrong."
Having just received the decision hours earlier, OUS was in the process of studying a range of options that would use whatever authority over guns it had to keep campuses safe, said Di Saunders, spokeswoman for the chancellor of higher education.
"We're working with our legal counsel on the implications of the ruling," she said, noting OUS's authority to regulate staff and students through contracts of employment, student rules of conduct and rules about behavior on university property.
"We're making sure we're protecting students and faculty. We do have the right to determine what happens on our property."
If anyone came on campus with a weapon, security officials would confront the person about why they have the weapon, Sanders said, adding that if the person was "brandishing it in a threatening way or didn't have a (concealed weapons) permit, they would call city police.
"If it's visible and is scaring faculty and students, security would check it out. (The ruling) doesn't open it up for everyone to come on campus with a weapon," she said.
Following several campus shootings across the country, security teams at SOU and the six other state campuses established emergency response systems to deal with weapon threats and alert all faculty and students via phone or email. These systems, Saunders said in a news release, "will continue to be in place."
Becky Tyler, an SOU senior in education and American Indian studies, said: "I don't think guns should be on campus. It makes me feel uneasy and creates an atmosphere of fear. If I got an alert, I would run for my car."
Taylor Lore, a senior in economics, said he respects people's right to carry and conceal weapons, but added, "I'm not very excited about the ruling."
"A classroom is no place for firearms," Lore said, "but if someone goes to the effort of getting a permit, they're probably not a loose cannon."
Not all students were opposed to the decision. Asked for her reaction, sophomore Sarah Vonwood said, "cool," although she added there must be limits.
"It's OK, I think, to carry your weapon of choice," she said, "but it definitely needs more regulation."
The three-judge appeals court cited a 1995 law that only the Legislature can regulate firearm possession, which was intended to prevent cities from creating gun bans. OUS is an arm of state government and not a municipality but still should fall under that law, the court decided.
The case came from sanctions in 2009 against a gun-carrying student at Western Oregon University. The school used the authority from a 20-year old administrative rule, but the judges said OUS's rule-making powers were pre-empted by a later state law giving the Legislature sole power to regulate guns.
The judges found that "this particular rule would seem on its face to be the type of regulation that was intended to be pre-empted" by the state law.
In 2004, SOU was in the news over banning guns on campus when conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson was uninvited from a First Amendment Forum after he said he would not comply with a university request that he not bring a gun on campus. Larson had a concealed weapons permit and said the university was abridging his Second Amendment rights by not permitting him to carry a gun.
The Legislature this year considered banning guns on all state campuses, but the proposal didn't advance.
"Our greatest concern is for the safety of our students and the entire campus community," Chancellor George Pernsteiner said. OUS will review its legal options, he said in a news release.
"It's doubtful the Legislature's going to act any time soon - given a split House and very close Senate - on anything controversial to do with guns," state Rep. Buckley, D-Ashland, said late Wednesday.
Comments
They were all "NO GUN ZONES"!
Why should a criminal risk being shot at when he/she can be the only one WITH a gun.
Liberals can keep the West Coast. Darwinism will eventually weed them out.
COB
Just remember what Columbine, Virginia Tech and Ft. Hood all three had in common...
They were all "NO GUN ZONES"!
Why should a criminal risk being shot at when he/she can be the only one WITH a gun.
Liberals can keep the West Coast. Darwinism will eventually weed them out.
COB
And where were these gun free zones you talk of, just one was sort of west coast most were east coast.
quote:People licensed to carry concealed weapons can't be barred from bringing guns onto university campuses, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the Oregon Court of Appeals strikes down a state administrative rule that prohibited carrying guns on property owned or controlled by the Oregon University System.
The court ruled that state law allows only the Legislature to enact laws regulating guns and that the OUS exceeded its authority in writing the rules and attempting to bar guns.
The ruling doesn't distinguish between people who carry guns openly and those with a license to carry concealed weapons, although the OUS rule presumably applied to both.
As a practical matter, though, the decision is of particular importance to those with concealed weapons permits.
Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation, said state law clearly prohibits administrative rules such as the one adopted by the OUS and the court was correct to strike it down.
"The final conclusion that the administrative rule was invalid is what we had always believed," he said. "I believe (the law) is as black and white as it can be."
OUS Chancellor George Pern-steiner issued a statement saying he was disappointed by the ruling and would consider his options. He did not say whether the OUS would appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, but he said he remains concerned about gun violence.
"Our greatest concern is for the safety of our students and the entire campus community," he said. "Whether accidental or intentional, firearms violence continues to hurt or kill thousands of Americans each year in this country. We will continue to review the opinion in order to consider future options to protect the safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors."
A University of Oregon spokeswoman said the UO also is reviewing the decision and has not taken a position on whether to appeal.
Ben Eckstein, the UO student body president, said students have consistently opposed allowing firearms on campus - to the point of also opposing armed campus police - and he urged the university system to appeal.
"This is an institution of public education, and weapons don't support a positive educational environment where students can feel safe," he said.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation, an offshoot of the Oregon Firearms Federation.
It was filed in response to a 2009 incident in which a student at Western Oregon University, who had a concealed handgun license, was arrested for carrying a gun on campus.
The charge was later dropped, but the university system defended its rule. That led to the OFEF lawsuit, which was argued before the court in March.
The court ruled against the foundation on some points. Judges declined to rule on the contention that the campus gun ban violates the Constitution's Second Amendment and denied a claim that the OUS lacks the authority to impose rules governing the conduct of campus visitors.
The court also rejected a claim that state law "expressly permits" licensed gun owners to carry weapons on campus. But it agreed that the gun rule runs afoul of a state law that reserves to the Legislature the authority to regulate weapons.
Universities argued that administrative rules did not amount to the type of regulation the law was meant to prohibit. But the court disagreed, saying "this particular rule would seem on its face to be the type of regulation that was intended to be pre-empted."
Because the court ruled that the university system exceeded its authority in imposing the gun ban and invalidated the rule, judges said it was not necessary to rule on the Second Amendment issue. But that issue most likely will be raised again if the decision is appealed.
Starrett said he disagreed with many parts of the ruling and said other judges have interpreted the gun law with "far more complicated and convoluted" reasoning than necessary.
He said it should be clear that the Legislature intended to prevent other agencies or local governments from adopting rules that would create a patchwork of gun laws, making it hard for licensed gun owners to know what was legal where.
He also flatly rejected the notion that allowing licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons raises safety concerns, noting that thousands of people are carrying concealed weapons everywhere people go.
He said people have been ignoring the university rule all along - Starrett said he has carried his gun on campuses many times - with no evidence of any problems.
"It makes no sense at all," Starrett said. "People are deluding themselves if they think that prior to this decision no one was carrying a concealed gun on campus."
http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A142974.pdf
The plaintiff asserted 2nd Amendment protection but the court declined to address the matter on that issue.
What's wrong with these people?
The most correct comment out of both articles. It highlights the fact that liberals delude themselves into thinking that they can pass laws that criminals will obey. "Gun Free Zones" should all be renamed "Law Abiding Citizen Gun Free Zone".
I just found the next target for the bad guys.
She must not be too familiar with this:
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain