A student-led movement in Boulder is working to see if they can ban concealed carry on CU campuses.
On Oct. 6, the CU Boulder Student Government Legislative Council passed a resolution petitioning to the Board of Regents to reinstate a ban on concealed carried weapons at CU campuses. However, UCCS student government wants to hear students’ opinions before making a decision.
According to the CU Independent, the Boulder student council unanimously passed the resolution, authored by Tri-Executive Rachel Hill. She said the bill “could save people’s lives.”
On Sept. 22, Student Body President Axel Brown spoke with the UCCS Student Government Association about the CU Boulder initiative.
Brown wanted the SGA Senate to come up with their own resolution for or against continuing to allow concealed carry on campus and planned to bring that decision to the board at a later date.
He and other senate members emphasized the importance of hearing students’ voices before making a decision. “We are a military town … so keep that in mind while you’re making your decision,” Brown said at the senate meeting.
The senate discussed making a survey asking how students at UCCS felt about concealed carry but made no definite plans.
Student Body Vice President Aidan Clark noted that it is ultimately up to the board to make the final decision. “It’s been on the regents’ radar for quite some time … they have not decided yet on whether or not they are going to change it,” Clark said.
However, the initiative is more complicated than Brown initially thought.
The CU system had prohibited concealed carry since 1970, until a lawsuit by the “Students for Conceal Carry on Campus” in 2012 forced the Board of Regents to change their policy. In June 2021 the Colorado General Assembly passed SB21-256, which gave smaller governing bodies more power to implement gun laws. Hill said this bill is significant, and “is where we have the power to actually advocate for change at a higher level.”
Under the current regent policy, 14.I: Weapons Control, “concealed carry laws do not permit state institutions of higher education to prohibit the lawful carrying of concealed handguns in accordance with terms of the laws.”
Currently, Brown has no other plans to address concealed carry at UCCS. “This has turned out to be a very sensitive topic,” he said.
However, he is still working to better understand the situation before moving forward with a decision. “My next move as the student body president and ICSF chair is to consult with the Board of Regents and President Saliman to further understand the complexity of the issue before our student government makes its next move on the matter,” Brown said.
Photo courtesy of usacarry.com.