University of Colorado still leaves some very important gun-free zones

The problem with making dorms gun-free zones is that if students can't have their permitted concealed handguns where they live, they aren't going to be able to have the guns with them at other places on campus.  All college freshmen are required to live on the college campus.  Overall, 18,000 students live off campus out of a total of about 28,200 -- thus about 63.8% live off campus.  Given that there were about 5,663 new freshmen in the fall of 2011 and a very small additional number of 85 in the Spring of 2012, that means that there are about 4,487 non-freshmen living in campus housing and probably many of those are probably sophomores and juniors. Some are families though it is in family housing that there are some exceptions made for permit holders.  Given that permits aren't allowed until the student is at least 21 years of age, the constraint will be binding on only a small fraction of the student body.

However, there is an important concern.  There will indeed be certain areas on campus where a killer will know in advance that no one will be able to protect themselves and my guess is that if an attack is going to occur someplace, it will be at one of those locations.  Thus, I think that the statement by Jim Geddes shown below is correct.  Here is a news story about the changes from the local Boulder, CO newspaper, The Daily Camera.

. . . CU had a campus-wide ban on guns that was overturned in March when the state Supreme Court ruled that the school cannot bar concealed-weapon permit holders from bringing their weapons to the university's campuses. That prompted CU officials to rework contractual agreements for students living in the dorms and revise the regents' policy on weapons.

Regent Jim Geddes, R-Sedalia, said he appreciates campus officials' comprehensive review of gun policies, but has concerns about some of the restrictions.

CU's Boulder campus has banned guns from its dorms and is allowing them in a about a dozen family housing cottages and in a limited number of Athens North family housing units.

Guns are entirely banned from ticketed events, including everything from football games at Folsom Field to concerts in Macky Auditorium.

"At the end of the day, you still have created some gun-free zones on campus," Geddes said. "Creating a gun-free zone without taking some other measures to protect our students within those zones has shown over and over again to be a failed policy." . . .