Oregon Campuses Won't Appeal Concealed Carry Ruling

The Oregon University System will not fight the state appeals court decision that overturned its system-wide gun ban and in effect legalized concealed carry, the system announced Tuesday. The court ruled in September that the ban, which prohibited guns and other weapons from Oregon’s seven public campuses, was illegal because only the state legislature has the authority to make such a rule. The system had said at the time it would consider an appeal. “While we feel strongly that the court decision is not in the best interests of our students and campus communities, we do not want to go through a long and costly process that may produce the same outcome,” George Pernsteiner, the system’s chancellor, said in a statement Tuesday. “Instead, we have started work on internal processes that are already in place or that we can put in place that will maintain a reasonable and satisfactory level of campus safety and security. ” Those include internal conduct codes, contracts and other policies that could be expanded to “reduce the likelihood of firearms on campus to the extent legally possible,” the statement said. It is still a felony under state law to carry a firearm in a public building or adjacent grounds without a valid concealed weapons permit.