FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(Ann Arbor, MI) — The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld the University of Michigan’s ban on firearms by affirming the decision of the Michigan Court of Claims.  The Court of Appeals noted, “Given that at the historically relevant period, universities were understood to be schools, and, further, that Heller recognized that schools were sensitive places to which Second Amendment protections did not extend, we conclude as a matter of law that (U-M’s gun ban) does not burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment.”  The appeals court also rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that the University of Michigan ban is unlawful because state law prohibits local units of government from regulating firearms. A university is not a local unit of government, the court said.

The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, which has advocated against firearms in Michigan’s K-12 schools and on college campuses, applauded the decision by the Court.  Tuesday’s decsions follows another decision by the Court of Appeals in December 2016, where the Court rejected the argument that state law “preempted” the powers of public schools to regulate the presence of concealed weaopns in K-12 schools.  Andy Pelosi, Executive Director of The Campaign, stated: “Throughout the country, many state legislatures have become more and more emboldened to attempt to change laws that either forbid guns on campus by statute or provide colleges and universities with the ability to regulate the presence of guns on campus.  The Court’s decision re-affirms that colleges and universities deserve protection from firearms as “sensitive places” as noted in the Supreme Court’s Heller decision.

Marvin Lim, counsel to The Campaign added, “The court’s decision is right, as a matter of law: the public university system, not the state legislature, is constitutionally in control over guns in school. And the court’s conclusion is right, as a matter of practical sense: far better than the state legislature, the public university system knows what impact guns in schools would have. Here, the University of Michigan rightfully recognized that guns have no place on its campus.”

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About The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus

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 loaded, concealed guns onto college campuses. To date, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and more than 420 colleges and universities in 42 states have joined The Campaign. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Contact:
Andy Pelosi,  [email protected] (914-629-6726)