COURT OF APPEALS KEEPS CASE AGAINST CU CONCEALED CARRY BAN ALIVE


The Colorado Court of Appeals has reversed the El Paso County District Court’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus against the University of Colorado and it’s ban of concealed carry on its Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs campuses.  More than a year ago, the Students’ suit was dismissed by the District Court for failing to assert a cause of action for which the Students were entitled to relief under the law.  In its reversal of the District Court, the Court of Appeals held that the uniform Colorado Concealed Carry Act and the corresponding pre-emption law provided adequate grounds on which the Students could sue.  The COA rejected CU’s claim, favored by the District Court, that CU could exempt itself at whim from state law pertaining to firearms, finding that if the General Assembly had intended to exempt public colleges and universities from the concealed carry law it could have and would have done so (the law does in fact exclude concealed carry in public secondary schools grades K-12).  Another important holding of the COA was that previous appellate court holdings that Robertson v. Denver (1994) declared that firearms possession/ownership was not a fundamental right in Colorado misinterpreted the holding of the Colorado Supreme Court in that case, and that Robertson also did not hold that laws limiting/restricting firearms ownership were subject to the easy-to-pass “rational basis” test.  In the instant case, the COA reminded that, per Robertson, state restriction on firearms must be a reasonable exercise of the state’s police power to act in the interest of the public health, safety and welfare.  The court alluded that outright bans of all firearms likely exceed state authority under this standard, where in restrictions in Robertson were limited to specific types of firearms. 

The case has now been remanded (returned) to the District Court for reinstatement of the Students’ claims.  CU can request a rehearing in front of the entire Court of Appeals, or can request review by the Colorado Supreme Court.

webmasteronThursday 15 April 2010 - 18:00:08
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