"Campus gun ban at CU Boulder ignores reality"

That’s the headline the Denver Post used for my article about the University of Colorado’s gun ban, which prohibits concealed-carry permit holders from being armed on campus. It begins:

Imagine this news headline: “School shooter apologizes — not for killing — but for violating CU campus gun ban.”

Preposterous, right? Not to some members of the University of Colorado Boulder faculty.

A recent motion from the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) supports a campus gun ban — as if someone intent on killing would comply with a campus gun ban, let alone regret breaking one.

One argument I’m particularly fond of is:

Here’s a challenge for the CU Regents and Boulder Faculty Assembly. They’re OK with armed campus police, but not armed citizens with the training and qualifications to have earned a concealed-carry permit. Then why not issue special campus gun permits to those who, at their own expense, undergo the same firearms training as the CU Police?

If this is not acceptable, how about more rigorous training, or limiting permits to faculty and staff? If a regent or CU faculty member opposes this, you should wonder about his actual motives for opposing concealed carry on campus.

Read the whole article: Campus gun ban at CU Boulder ignores reality.

(Graphic courtesy of Oleg Volk and A-Human-Right.com.)

Update: This was the most-viewed opinion article at the denverpost.com for the week of August 1-August 7 2010.  See the “OnLineNumbers” part of the Aug. 8 print edition here (pdf).