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Koster sues to protect concealed carry rights on Mizzou campus

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking for 90 days to allow the Board of Curators to make their campus conceal and carry permit regulations fit inside the constitutional framework of the law.

The declaratory judgement sought by Koster would ask the curators to to “consider the particularized safety concerns of individual, law-abiding employees with valid concealed-carry permits, and to make case-by-case determinations whether consent should be granted to such employees to carry concealed firearms on University property while conducting activities within the scope of their employment.”

The filing is a “parallel” step in litigation filed last year by University of Missouri law professor Royce Barondes. He challenged a university rule against securing a lawfully owned weapon in the trunk of his car while parked on campus.

Attorney General Chris Koster demonstrates murder weapon, State v. Joseph S. Jones, Jackson County Circuit Court, October 2010
Attorney General Chris Koster demonstrates murder weapon, State v. Joseph S. Jones, Jackson County Circuit Court, October 2010

The attorney general’s filing said that state employees with concealed carry permits should constitutionally be able to keep their firearms in their vehicles while on the University campus.

But guidelines released by the University of Missouri System issue a blanket prohibition on firearms on campus, with exemptions for university police and university programs.

Koster’s filing said that is in conflict with state law and that where state law and “local” law conflict, the state law should be followed.

State law allows state employees with concealed carry permits to keep firearms in their vehicles while on campus.

“Curators’ Regulation § 110.010.B.4(a) conflicts with § 571.037 RSMo, and is therefore preempted, to the extent it purports to prohibit Professor Barondes and other University employees who hold valid concealed-carry permits from transferring firearms in a calm and nonthreatening manner between the passenger compartment and the locked trunk of their vehicles while parked on University property,” the filing said.

The filing also argues that the regulations issued by the curators were not narrowly tailored.

“It provides no avenue for law-abiding employees with valid concealed-carry permits to request that Curators consider the particular circumstances surrounding the employees’ desire to carry a concealed weapon on University property while conducting activities within the scope of their employment,” the filing said.