October 11, 2011

By Elissa Chudwin

The Oregon Court of Appeals overturned a policy, thereby allowing college students to carry concealed weapons at all seven of its public universities Wednesday, Sept. 28.

According to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, the Oregon Revised Statute’s passage was a result of United States Marine and student Jeff Maxwell’s arrest for carrying a small weapon at Western Oregon University’s campus. Although the charges were dropped, Maxwell was still suspended from the university.

In 2009, Oregon Firearms Federation filed a lawsuit in the state’s Court of Appeals on behalf of Maxwell, overruling Oregon University System’s ban on carrying firearms. ORS 166-170 permits students to carry a concealed firearm on campus, as long as the owner has a license, according to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Despite the change in policy, this decision is not final. According to an article in The Oregonian, university officials might appeal the decision due to the policy’s negative backlash.

Allowing weapons on campus has generated skepticism from both university officials and the general public. According to the Students for Gun Free Schools, universities nation-wide remain safe due to the very fact they are gun-free. The organization members said carrying concealed weapons creates more of a safety hazard than actual protection against violent events.

Supporters of the policy think carrying weapons prevents tragedies like the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University shootings.

“I think guns should be allowed on campus, because anyone who is going to use a gun will be able to get ahold of one,” MU freshman Ben Temple said. “With the current law in place though, everyong else is left defenseless.”

Cameron Church is a freshman at the University of Oregon who won’t be taking advantage of the new change in policy.

“I would never think about buying a weapon, mainly because I think I would be putting myself and others more in dangers by carrying a weapon,” Church said in an email. “If I feel like I am in danger, that is what campus security or the police are for.”

According to Armed Campuses, Oregon is not the first state to allow firearms on campuses. Utah allows weapons at universities with little to no restrictions, whereas Colorado, Virginia and Michigan permit weapons at the university’s discretion.

In 2009, the Missouri house voted to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. Despite the approval of the legislature, members of the community and university officials opposed the bill. According to MU Police Department Captain Brian Weimer, the bill has yet to pass.

Weimer said he thinks allowing concealed weapons on campus could lead to problems.

“I don’t know where anything good would come out of that, you wouldn’t know who’s the suspect in a classroom environment like that,” Weimer said. “The enforcement on campus go through extensive training for these situations and are the correct people to handle them.”

As for the controversy in Oregon, Church said he doesn’t think the safety of University of Oregon’s campus has been necessarily altered.

“I think that our school is probably still as safe as before,” he said.