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MEDIA CONTACTS: Ladd Everitt, (202) 701-7171, [email protected] Andy Pelosi, (914) 629-6726, [email protected] |
Washington, DC – GunFreeKids.org, The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence have relaunched a website, www.armedcampuses.org, which lists colleges and universities where individuals are permitted to carry concealed, loaded firearms on campus. The website is designed to be a resource for students and their parents as they make decisions regarding higher education.
Currently, seven states have provisions that allow individuals to carry loaded, concealed guns on the premises of public colleges and universities (i.e., campus grounds, classrooms, dormitories, etc.). These states are Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin. The “Armed Campuses” website provides detailed information about laws concerning the carrying of concealed firearms in each of these states, as well as campus gun laws throughout the country.
The overwhelming majority of colleges and universities continue to implement strict, gun-free policies, and these policies have helped to make our postsecondary education institutions some of the safest places in the nation. Despite the success of these policies, however, an increasingly extreme pro-gun movement has been active in advocating for legislation (and litigation) to force colleges and universities to allow guns on campus. During the course of the 2013 state legislative season, at least 14 states considered (or are still considering) such legislation.
Colleges and universities themselves have almost unanimously opposed the gun lobby’s efforts to change their firearm policies. Nowhere has this been more evident recently than in Arkansas, where every public and private college/university in the state voted to opt out of a law that would have allowed them to permit the carrying of guns on campus.
“Given how loose gun laws are in many states in this country, we think students are going to want to know the firearm policies of the colleges they are attending,” said GunFreeKids.org and Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus director Andy Pelosi. “As a father, I know that the safety of my children is always a first consideration.”
www.armedcampuses.org will be updated on a regular basis to reflect changes in state and campus policy in the 50 states.
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The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective policy advocacy.
Founded in 2007, GunFreeKids.org (GFK) is an Internet-based 501(c)4 issue advocacy organization, which provides tools for people to take action on pending state and national legislation and assists voters nationwide in learning about and supporting state-based candidates who favor sound gun violence prevention policies.
The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus was founded in 2008 to urge colleges and universities to band together to oppose the gun lobby’s agenda to push guns onto college campuses. To date, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and more than 365 colleges and universities in 41 states have joined the Campaign. Click to view list.
