The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday invalidated a 20-year-old ban against carrying firearms on the state university system's campuses.
In an opinion released on Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the court ruled that the system had overstepped its authority when it imposed the ban in 1991. The judges based their decision on a state law that says only the state legislature can regulate firearms, and declined to rule on whether the ban violated the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
A gun-rights group, the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation, had raised both claims in its lawsuit seeking to invalidate the regulation. U.S. Supreme Court decisions in recent years have expanded the reach of the Second Amendment, causing advocates of weapons restrictions on campuses to advise colleges to carefully tailor their policies so that they will hold up in court.
Diane Saunders, a spokeswoman for the Oregon University System, said the university had not decided whether to appeal the decision. In the future, she said, university officials may consider using student codes of conduct and employment contracts, instead of a broader regulation, to limit when students and employees can carry firearms.
The chancellor of the university system, George Pernsteiner, said in a written statement that he was disappointed with the ruling. "Our greatest concern is for the safety of our students and the entire campus community," he said.
