Safe Campus Colorado won the right Thursday to start gathering signatures to put its proposal, Initiative 49, on the November ballot. The initiative would overturn a Colorado Supreme Court decision that said college boards can\u2019t ban concealed weapons on their campuses.<\/p>\n
Ken Toltz, founder of Safe Campus Colorado, said he thinks most voters are not aware of the court decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is giving the voters of Colorado the opportunity to have a voice on public safety at college and university campuses,\u201d Toltz said.<\/p>\n
The secretary of state\u2019s Title Board approved the ballot language Thursday, a step that gives Safe Campus Colorado six months to collect at least 86,105 signatures from Colorado voters to place Initiative 49 on the ballot.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s concealed weapons law allows people with permits to carry concealed guns, except for in a few select locations, including K-12 schools. Initiative 49 would add colleges .<\/p>\n
University of Colorado regents attempted to ban concealed guns on their campuses, but the Supreme Court struck it down in 2012.<\/p>\n
Democrats in the Legislature tried to reinstate the ban as part of their suite of gun bills in 2013, but it failed in the Senate. The sponsor, Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, said he wouldn\u2019t try again this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve been there and done that,\u201d Health said.<\/p>\n
But Toltz is hoping a petition campaign can do what the Legislature couldn\u2019t. As a former professor and parent of two daughters in college, he says guns make campuses more dangerous.<\/p>\n
The co-proponent of Initiative 49, Heather Coogan, is the former police chief of Denver\u2019s Auraria campus, home to three colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say with certainty that allowing concealed guns on campus makes the job of police officers more difficult,\u201d Coogan said in a news release. \u201cGuns on campus create an intimidating climate and puts the safety of students, teachers and staff at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gun proponents argue that concealed weapons actually make campuses safer by giving students a chance to defend themselves.<\/p>\n