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Across the U.S., most public universities ban students and faculty from carrying concealed handguns on campus. Colorado State University has, up until now, been one of the few exceptions to this rule. But now, campus leadership wants to change the policy, and that’s not sitting well with students and local gun rights advocates.

The university’s board of directors voted to pass a ban on carrying concealed weapons last year. At a news conference on the Fort Collins campus earlier this month, Terry Tyan, of the advocacy group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, says the ban — which has yet to be finalized — would violate Colorado’s concealed-carry law. She says that if the university continues to try to ban firearms, the school would be answered with a lawsuit.

The region’s county sheriff, Jim Alderden, says if the CSU policy is put into place, he will not jail anyone found guilty of violating it.

"What CSU is trying to pass is a policy," Alderden says. "And their position is that the university policy trumps state law and the U.S. Constitution."

Alderden says school policy should not trump state law. But under Colorado law, campuses do have the authority to implement weapons control policies. And the university’s spokesman, Brad Bohlander, says that most other campuses in the state already have these policies.

But Bohlander says the ban won’t go into place until a specific university policy is approved. So far, CSU officials have been pouring through public comment on a draft of the plan…

Source: NPR.org