When the Oregon State Board of Higher Education@@http://www.ous.edu/state_board@@ set a new gun-ban policy in place on March 2, questions were raised.
It appeared to be fairly similar to the ban of concealed-carry weapons on Oregon University System campuses that had been overturned by the Court of Appeals last fall, due to the Board not having the legal authority to create such a rule. The new policy, which was announced on Friday, says guns are prohibited on any campus property across the OUS system.
“The Court of Appeals invalidated our rule because only the Oregon legislature has the ability to make that rule,” OUS spokesperson Di Saunders said@@http://www.ous.edu/news_and_information/bios/saunders.php@@. “The same court of appeals said that the school does have the ability to control their property.”
This is the first time since 1978 — when the other mandate was put in place — that the OUS has created this type of rule.
“It’s an internal policy because there is a precedent there to set policies based on the use of the property,” Saunders said.
However, some do not view this as a valid policy.@@does this sound biased?@@
“It appears the courts made a decision, and the University system decided to ignore it,” Kevin Starrett of the Oregon Firearms Federation@@http://oregonfirearms.org/alertspage/2011/08.25.11%20Proznaski-Liar.html@@ said. OFF’s sibling organization, the Oregon Firearms Education Federation@@http://ofef.org/@@, was the one that filed the original suit against the Board of Higher Education. “I think (the policies and the rule) are virtually identical — I don’t see any difference.”
Starrett personally does not plan on obliging with the rule, and that does not seem to be an uncommon decision. A University student who wished to remain anonymous said, “If there’s that rare situation where I would like to have a gun, it would be nice to have one. And it’s legal. It’s my right. It’s not dangerous.”
“The biggest thing about having a concealed-handgun license is that it’s concealed, so people don’t see it,” he said.
Starrett and his organization currently have no plans to file another suit against the board due to the high costs of the process. They will continue to formulate ideas of how to combat it, but to Starrett, things are the same.
“It applied to me in the past, and I never obeyed it. No one ever questioned me,” Starrett said. “So, in some respects, I don’t really see that that’s changed.”
Because the Board of Higher Education approached the ban in a different way, they are more confident in their policy.
“Because there is already a precedent, it will be difficult to counter, ” Saunders said. “This time we are standing on much stronger ground.”