A great day for firearms rights

[jimpeel]

First, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the colleges and universities in our state cannot restrict the carry of concealed firearms on campus.

Both of the below are cut-n-paste from my e-mail notifications from RMGO and SAF. No copyright issue. Attribution given.

SOURCE

This e-mail news release from Dudley Brown, President, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) March 5, 2012.

Today, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the CU Regents cannot ban concealed carry on their campuses.

This ruling supported the decision of a court of appeals from April 2010, and reversed a position paper by then-Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar (an opinion which the current Attorney General, John Suthers, refused to change).

The crux of today’s ruling states that the Colorado General Assembly did, in fact, intend on concealed carry permit holders to be able to carry on all campuses, statewide.

“First CSU and the Community Colleges, and now all the CU Campuses; finally, the administrators for Colorado’s public colleges have been told they don’t have dictatorial powers,” said Dudley Brown, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), and a lobbyist for the entire 9-year battle for Colorado’s Concealed Carry Act.

“The creation of this criminal safezone, where only criminals are armed, was ill-advised and dangerous to anyone who finds themselves on a college campus,” Brown said.

“Now, RMGO will move on to force more publicly owned facilities to live by the law.”

<MORE AT SOURCE LINK>

Second, A Maryland ruling has eliminated the "good cause" restriction for obtaining a CCW in that state.

SOURCE

This e-mail news release from Alan Gottlieb, President, Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, March 5, 2012.

MARYLAND RULING A HUGE VICTORY'
FOR SECOND AMENDMENT, SAYS SAF

BELLEVUE, WA - A federal court ruling in Maryland, that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends beyond the home and that citizens may not be required to offer a "good and substantial reason" for obtaining a concealed carry permit, is a huge victory, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Ruling in the case of Woollard v. Sheridan - a case brought by SAF in July 2010 on behalf of Maryland resident Raymond Woollard, who was denied his carry permit renewal - the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled that "The Court finds that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home."

U.S. District Court Judge Benson Everett Legg noted, "In addition to self-defense, the (Second Amendment) right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendments protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and self-defense has to take place wherever [a] person happens to be'."

"This is a monumentally important decision," said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "The federal district court has carefully spelled out the obvious, that the Second Amendment does not stop at one's doorstep, but protects us wherever we have a right to be. Once again, SAF's attorney in this case, Alan Gura, has won an important legal victory. He was the attorney who argued the landmark Heller case, and he represented SAF in our Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago.

"Equally important in Judge Legg's ruling," he added, "is that concealed carry statutes that are so discretionary in nature as to be arbitrary do not pass constitutional muster."

"A citizen may not be required to offer a good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights," Judge Legg wrote. "The right's existence is all the reason he needs."

"Judge Legg's ruling takes a substantial step toward restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place in the Bill of Rights, and provides gun owners with another significant victory," Gottlieb concluded. "SAF will continue winning back firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time."

[CowTowner]

It's just so nice to finally see some daylight, instead of an oncoming train, at the end of the tunnel.

[carguychris]

...the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled that "The Court finds that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home."

WOW. The gauntlet has just been laid down!

[Gary L. Griffiths]

WOW. The gauntlet has just been laid down!

Not just laid down, used to slap the faces of other courts who have held that the 2nd Amendment applies only to the home!

[Tom Servo]

The Colorado situation is already under discussion in this thread.

The Woollard ruling is already under discussion in this thread.