Legal test case on gun free zones for Oregon Universities

The Oregonian has this story from yesterday:

Oregon universities' gun ban faces legal test
by Suzanne Pardington, The Oregonian
Friday February 20, 2009, 8:32 PM

LEBANON -- Jeffrey Maxwell, a 30-year-old student at Western Oregon University who served in the Marines, always carries a loaded two-bullet derringer in his front pocket that's so small it looks like it could be his keys.

He has a license to carry and conceal the gun, but he never takes it out or talks about it on campus because he doesn't want to scare anyone. It's only for protection, he says.

State law allows him to carry his gun in most public places. But the university says he can't carry it on campus -- license or no license. Maxwell's case might finally settle the long-standing conflict in court for all seven public universities in Oregon.

"We have an honest guy that served his country, and now he's being treated in a way that's totally unconscionable," said Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation. "It's a situation we've been hoping to resolve for a long time."

Maxwell's gun rekindled the legal and legislative debate over guns on campus after campus safety officers received reports of a suspicious man with a large knife on campus one morning in late January. . . . .