Guns

Making Guns Safer

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 10:39:00 +0000

Making Guns Safer Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/01/2017 - 03:39

Clint Talbott

Guns are controversial in America. There’s no escaping that fact.

There’s also no doubt that gun violence is widespread and catastrophic. October’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, which killed 58 people at an outdoor country music concert and injured hundreds of others, is one gut-wrenching example.

Margot Hirsch (Class’82) believes there’s a way to minimize the violence without wading deep into the fraught debate about legislative gun control.

“We aren’t advocating to take guns away or to infringe on Second Amendment rights,” said Hirsch, president of the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation, a nonprofit group that fosters innovation in firearm safety and raises awareness about smart gun technologies. “In fact, gun owners are our primary audience: They want to keep their families safe, too. This is all about new technology that would make firearms safer and help keep them out of the wrong hands, especially children.”

Founded in 2013, the San Francisco Bay Area-based foundation favors a market-based — that is, not government-mandated — approach to gun safety. It has granted $1 million to entrepreneurs honing commercially viable smart guns and gun-safety solutions.

In general, smart guns are equipped with a safety feature restricting their use to specific individuals, as through biometric technology. Related safety innovations include various types of safes, locks and holsters.

“We still have a ways to go, but a future where we can prevent up to 20,000 injuries and deaths is possible, and that’s exciting,” said Hirsch, who previously had a 25-year career in corporate sales.

Annually, there are 20,000 injuries and deaths in the United States from accidental shootings and teen suicides alone. In all, there are 33,000 gun deaths domestically, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

“What most people aren’t aware of is that of the 30,000-plus gun deaths per year, two-thirds are suicides,” she said.

Given the emotionally charged nature of the gun debate, even Smart Tech’s free market-based efforts to curb gun violence have found opposition, according to Hirsch, who said she and her colleagues underestimated the “pushback from the NRA and the gun lobby.”

Additionally, she said, it’s been harder than anticipated to raise capital for “innovators who are trying to bring these technologies to market.”

The market for guns is not small. Americans own approximately 350 million of them and buy 10 million during “quiet” years, when there’s no widely publicized mass shooting.

It’s Hirsch’s hope that investing in smart-gun technology will appeal to those who see an opportunity to make money while helping to make positive social change.

Many people, she said, simply don’t know about the potential of smart-gun technology.

A longer version of this story is available in the online Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine.

Photos courtesy Margot Hirsch

Margot Hirsch believes there’s a way to minimize violence without wading deep into the fraught debate about legislative gun control.

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Faculty Up in Arms About Concealed Carry

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Faculty Up in Arms About Concealed Carry Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 12/01/2012 - 00:00

Staff

The campus has hosted an ongoing discussion on gun rights following a Colorado Supreme Court ruling last spring that held that CU regents cannot set gun policies contrary to the state’s 2003 concealed-carry law.

The ruling means that anyone over the age of 21 who holds a valid concealed-carry permit can bring a concealed weapon into a class, laboratory or CU administrative building as long as the weapon remains concealed. A concealed-carry permit does not authorize the holder to display a weapon to intimidate others.

“We are complying with the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and trying at the same time to balance the rights of concealed-carry permit holders and the concerns of our faculty, staff and students,” says Provost Russ Moore.

In two town hall meetings, administrators have reinforced to faculty, staff and students that CU had exhausted its legal options and told faculty they cannot cancel classes for fear a student might possess a concealed weapon. They also have advised students what to do if they see a student carrying a weapon on campus.

CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano recommended that those who oppose the policy seek a legislative remedy. Some faculty members met with Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder) to voice support for such a measure, and Levy later met with CU system officials to hear their input on a possible bill. However, some students with permits have expressed support for the ruling and feel they have been wrongly marginalized.

“I am here to protect,” MBA student Steve Ojala said at a town hall meeting. “I’m not a criminal. I don’t have a background record. But I feel like a criminal.”

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Campus Gun Ban Draws Fire

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Campus Gun Ban Draws Fire Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/01/2010 - 00:00

Rasheed Lawal, a fifth-year physiology and international affairs student, speaks during a student government meeting convened in June to discuss the campus ban on concealed weapons. Mark Leffingwell courtesy Boulder Camera

CU has no authority to prevent people from carrying concealed weapons on campus, according to an April ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals, which set off a campus debate regarding guns.

In June the CU student government voiced its support for the long-standing campus ban, which stretches back to 1970 when CU banned guns on campus, with the exception of law enforcement personnel. Other groups supporting the gun ban are the Intercampus Student Forum, which represents students on all four CU campuses, and the Boulder Faculty Assembly.

“I feel that the constitution and liberty don’t matter when you’re dead,” said junior Kristine Gutierrez during a student government open forum. “It’s not about having rights — it’s about safety.”

But other students disagree. Junior Colby Kamin said the issue was not about more guns on campus but allowing properly trained individuals to practice their right to bear arms.

CU regents voted 5-4 in the summer to keep the weapons ban on campus and appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court to overturn the Court of Appeals concealed weapons ruling. The divided regents cited their right to set university policy and the safety of students and faculty.

CU has no authority to prevent people from carrying concealed weapons on campus, according to an April ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals, which set off a campus debate regarding guns.

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