My column at USA Today, Time to talk about gun free zones, is gaining a lot of attention, with over 6600 shares, plus over 11,000 shares at The Blaze which excerpted the column.
I’ve enjoyed reading the comments, most of which are along the line of this comment at The Blaze:
Lets see.. Law professor at Cornell University, Comes out against gun free zones, Says the word “Evil” in his statement ….Yeah, welcome to the unemployment line…
AS OF THIS WRITING I’m still employed, so there.
I was interviewed Monday night, October 5, 2015, on the Ron Arquette Show in Salt Lake City, Utah about my column.
One issue that has arisen is whether Umpqua Community College was a “gun-free zone.”
I included several links in my prior post, including to a statement by the Interim President that UCC had a “no guns on campus” policy, as well as analyses at Breitbart.com, The Federalist, and Vocativ which showed what the policy actually was.
Since then, some people have claimed UCC was not a gun-free zone because of a state appeals court decision holding that by statute only the state assembly could regulate firearms, and that state higher education rules were tantamount to regulation and therefore preempted. (It was not a 2nd Amendment decision.) The decision leaves unclear whether some restrictions, that are not so sweeping they amount to “regulation,” would be permitted, and that vagueness may be why some colleges and schools believe they can impose some restrictions.
That was the point of this article at The Oregonian. But even that article acknowledged that UCC had a no-guns policy. Whether it legally was entitled to is open to debate, the article points out (emphasis added):
The college’s no-guns policy seems to be obvious evidence that the Umpqua campus was such a place. But Oregon gun owners with concealed firearms licenses know those licenses entitle them to carry loaded guns in nearly all public places. Guns, including handguns and rifles, are allowed on campus for people who have passed all background checks and conditions to qualify for a concealed weapon permit.Many Oregon college and university leaders dislike having armed people on campus, and public colleges have tried to make rules prohibiting the practice. But the courts have ruled those policies invalid when it comes to licensed permit-holders.
So whether UCC’s policy was lawful is one thing, but the fact that it had a no-guns policy is not in doubt. And that’s what mattered.
UPDATE 10-6-2015 – h/t Patterico, here is the UCC President confirming “we have a no guns on campus policy” (earlier in the video she confirmed the security on campus was unarmed):
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