OUS firearms ban overturned

Last month, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the OUS campus ban on firearms was invalid because it superseded Oregon state law.

The OUS rule responsible for the controversy was enacted in the late 1970s, and was based on another Oregon statute that gives universities the right to control the use of their property. However, there is a “state preemption” in Oregon firearms law that allows no one but the Oregon legislative assembly to regulate the possession of firearms. Because of this preemption, the OUS administrative rule was found invalid in accordance with state law.

The plaintiff in this case, the Oregon Firearms Federation, brought the case against the OUS rule because a Western Oregon University student was arrested in 2009 for carrying a handgun on campus. Kevin Starret, a representative for the Oregon Firearms Federation, explained that after consulting with lawyers, the organization determined that rather than fighting the student’s particular case—a situation in which the student could be held responsible for all sorts of court and legal fees—the better strategy would be to take on the OUS rule itself.

To put it simply, firearms law is extremely complex because of how much it depends on location and the individual’s qualifications under the law. Whether you can carry a gun openly, concealed or even loaded depends on where you are, your criminal background and what kind of licensing you’ve secured.

“No one understands the law,” Starret said. “Pro-gun, or anti-gun, no one [fully] understands it.”

In this case, the question for debate is whether a person can carry a concealed weapon onto a college campus.

Oregon statutes 166.360 and 166.370 clearly define universities as public buildings, and as such it is illegal to carry a firearm into them. However, statute 166.370 also clearly states that this does not apply to “a person who is licensed under ORS 166.291 and 166.292 to carry a concealed handgun.”

“We’re talking about a very small number of people,” Starret said. As per the law above, only persons who have been licensed and registered to carry a concealed firearm may do so on a college campus. The number gets even smaller when you take into account that professors and employees of the university aren’t allowed to carry firearms on campus under any circumstance due to their employment contract with the university.

In fact, in 2009 a school teacher in the Medford, Ore., school district lost her appeal to the Oregon court system for this very reason.

Under Oregon law, regular citizens (not police officers) are only allowed to have a firearm on school property if the firearm is concealed and they have a valid concealed carry permit.

The teacher, who felt threatened by her ex-husband, whom she thought might seek to harm her at work, wanted to carry a concealed weapon on campus for protection. The court stated that because “the school district’s internal employment policy does not represent the sort of exercise of the ‘authority to regulate’ firearms that the statute preempts,” the school district was within its bounds to restrict the teacher from carrying a concealed weapon on a school campus.

Regardless of an individual’s feelings about firearms on campus, the number of weapons-related incidents on the Portland State campus is very low. The Clery Crime reports from the past three years at PSU show that there were a total of six weapons possessions arrests on campus from 2008–10. The number of weapons referrals (meaning the incident was referred to Portland Police, or some other organization) for the same timeframe totaled 11 cases.

In comparison, for the same timeframe, there were 36 alcohol-related arrests and 816 alcohol-related referrals on the PSU campus.

Diane Saunders, director of communications for OUS, said that the original intent of the rule was to further reduce the risk of injuries and crime across campuses.

“We look at anything we can do to mitigate risk across campus,” Saunders said. “When you have a concentration of people across the small area of a campus there are more risks…When there are firearms in people’s gym bags, there is increased risk” of someone getting hurt.

When asked if the state’s laws were adequate in preventing gun-related crime and injury, Saunders replied that while state law prevents people from carrying handguns openly, “we were trying to stop people from carrying concealed weapons on campus to further reduce risk.”

As evidenced in a press release written by PSU President Wim Wiewel, the university takes the risks associated with firearms on campus very seriously: “Firearms and weapons continue to be prohibited by law in buildings across campus, unless that person has a valid concealed weapons permit. We will continue to vigorously enforce that law. If anyone on campus sees an individual with a weapon or feels threatened by another individual, they should contact the Campus Public Safety Office.”

While Starret feels that firearms safety is a top priority when it comes to regulation, he disagrees with the approach that PSU and OUS have taken.

“What changes when you step onto a college campus?” Starret asked. “[This ban] is a presumption that all college kids are dangerous assholes.”

Starret pointed out the fact that we allow college-age students to have considerable freedom in many aspects of their life, such as voting, tobacco and alcohol use, and legal decisions, but that protecting yourself with a firearm on a college campus is not okay.

After hearing the contents of Wiewel’s press release, Starret said: “This ruling doesn’t mean that a dumb college kid can go down to the Park Blocks and blow someone’s head off.