By the Democrat-Herald | Posted: Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:00 am
Oregon's state universities have no plans to drop their policy against carrying weapons on campus, including holders of concealed handgun licenses.
That's the gist of a letter Ryan James Hagemann, a lawyer for the Oregon University System, sent state legislators on Tuesday from Portland.
The issue came to a head last winter, when a student from Lebanon was detained at Western Oregon University for having a pistol and a knife, then suspended for the rest of the school year for having the knife in a pocket and a rifle in his parked truck.
The suspension under the campus conduct code didn't mention the pistol, a loaded two-shot .22 derringer.
The student, who served in the Marines, had a concealed handgun license.
Thirty-four legislators led by Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, had asked the university system to drop its policies in light of a state law that seemingly entitles concealed hangun license holders to have weapons on campus.
In its reply, the system said it wants to reach clarity on the issue, hoped a Medford court case pending in the Court of Appeals would help provide it, and suggested the legislature might also act on the issue.
"Fundamentally, though," the letter said, "OUS and the State Board of Higher Education believe that our campuses are safer without firearms."
Thatcher was not satisfied.
"While I thank the University System for their consideration of this matter, the response we received is a non-response," she said in a statement.
"The outcome of the case in Medford could take years to resolve if it goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court level. Meanwhile, lawful citizens of our state are being denied a legal right to have firearms on our college campuses if they have a CHL."
The legislator also said: "I find it ironic that the OUS wants to leave the final decision up to the Oregon Legislature since it is that body which already passed a state law stating very clearly that CHL holders are allowed to carry on university campuses."
She added that people with handgun licenses "are expected to, and do conduct themselves to a higher standard than most people. Their ability to conduct themselves properly does not end the moment they cross the property line of a college."