Colorado House Passes Four Gun-Control Measures

After much heated debate on Friday, a package of gun-control measures passed in the Colorado House on Monday, including limiting magazines to 15 rounds, background checks for all gun transactions, requiring gun owners to pay for their own background checks and banning concealed weapons on public college campuses.  The four bills will now move to the Senate.

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While many of the measures are ideas currently being pushed by the White House (don’t think Joe Biden let this vote occur without making some phone calls first) and feature prominently in the national gun-control debate, the concept of banning concealed weapons on public campuses deserves a closer look.

Democrats made the argument that guns and college campuses don’t mix, but this simply isn’t true:

For the past decade, concealed carry has been legal on Colorado college campuses and the nightmare scenarios presented by those seeking to disarm students have yet to materialize.

In fact, crime rates at Colorado State University—one of the schools that did not pass campus regulations banning concealed carry—plummeted after the 2003 law was passed. In 2009, when school administrators threatened students’ right to self defense, CSU’s student government voted by an overwhelming 7:1 margin to keep concealed carry on campus.

In 2012, Students for Concealed Carry won a landmark victory before the Colorado Supreme Court overturning illegal campus gun bans that left students defenseless.

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Somehow these Democrats are OK with sending 18-year-olds off to war but can’t handle a 21-year-old (Colorado’s minimum age requirement to obtain a permit) exercising their constitutional right on campus. Already licensed individuals should not be stripped of their rights on campus simply because Democratic lawmakers are uncomfortable with the idea. After all, self-defense on campus is much bigger than the possibility of thwarting a mass shooting. Crime, including assault and rape, occurs on and around college campuses throughout the U.S. on a daily basis. Why can’t Colorado Democrats understand their actions are enabling criminals and turning students into sitting ducks?

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