Campus gun ban advances

On the second day this week of marathon hearings on gun-control bills, the House Education Committee voted 7-6 to pass House Bill 13-1226, which would ban carrying of concealed weapons on college campuses.

Current state law allows holders of concealed weapons permits to carry their guns almost anywhere in the state (K-12 schools are an exception).

The bill is sponsored by two Democrats, Rep. Claire Levy and Sen. Rollie Heath, from Boulder, home of the University of Colorado.

CU and its board of regents have been involved in a long-running war with gun rights advocates over whether concealed weapons could be carried on campus.

The regents had argued that state law on concealed weapons didn’t apply to them, but the Colorado Supreme Court struck down that view in a unanimous March 2012 decision that said the law did in fact apply to CU.

The hearing, featuring students and professors speaking in favor of the bill and gun-rights supporters opposing it, went on for about four hours before the committee’s Democratic majority passed it on to the House Appropriations Committee.

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