Gun Rights Victories

From The Heritage Foundation:

InsiderOnline Blog: March 2012

Gun Rights Victories

Two gun rights victories this week:

Students can now carry guns at the University of Colorado—with the proper permit—thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the Court ruled the University’s refusal to allow licensed carry on its campuses violated the state’s Concealed Carry Act. (See: Regents of the University of Colorado v. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.) David Kopel at Volokh Conspiracy (March 5) explains:

Colorado’s 2003 Concealed Carry Act provides that licenses issued pursuant to the CCA shall be valid “in all areas of the state, except as specifically limited” by other portions of the CCA (such as the rule that CCA licensees can have a gun in the car when they are on K-12 school property, but may not carry the gun outside the car). […] The Court rejected CU’s theory that because the University is created by the State Constitution, the Concealed Carry Act could only apply to the University if the statute expressly mentioned CU.

And as of Monday, Maryland residents no longer need to give a “good and substantial reason” for wanting a gun in order to receive permit. U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg struck down just such a requirement in the case Woollard v. Sheridan, reports Fox News (March 5):

[…] Legg wrote that states are allowed some leeway in deciding the way residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Maryland’s objective was to limit the number of firearms that individuals could carry, effectively creating a rationing system that rewarded those who provided the right answer for wanting to own a gun.

“A citizen may not be required to offer a ‘good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” Legg wrote. “The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

Posted on 03/08/12 09:41 PM by Alex Adrianson | Blog Archive