BOULDER, Colo. During her 19 years teaching English at the University of Colorado Boulder, Karen Jacobs never gave much thought to whether one of her students was carrying a gun.
As the states flagship university, it had a longstanding firearms ban. So even in a place like Colorado, where gun rights are nearly as deeply cherished as John Elway and fresh snow, there was never a need for concern.
But ever since a State Supreme Court ruling in March forced the university to allow those with Colorado concealed weapon permits to carry their guns on campus, Ms. Jacobs and other faculty members have found themselves increasingly uneasy.
This is a place where we depend on being able to speak our minds and offer sometimes controversial opinions in a free and open place, she said. The feeling among a percentage of faculty is that this will create a climate of fear and intimidation.
Over the last two months, with the school year in full swing, anxiety over the universitys new gun policy has risen driven in part by the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater on July 20 by a troubled University of Colorado Denver graduate student and by the deep scars that still cut through the state from the killings at Columbine High School 13 years ago.
Some teachers have spoken out publicly against extending the concealed gun policy to campus, fearful that an unstable student who now, ostensibly, could be legally armed in their classrooms might hurt them or a fellow student.
Last month, the chairman of the Faculty Assembly at the campus in Boulder, Jerry Peterson, told The Boulder Daily Camera that he would cancel class if he discovered one of his students was carrying a gun. And on Friday, faculty members gathered to discuss how to overturn the policy through legislative channels.
Gun rights proponents, conversely, have argued that lawful gun owners should not be precluded from protecting themselves on college campuses, and they contend that gun bans make those campuses less safe.
Besides, they say, anyone disturbed enough to open fire is not going to heed university policy.
This gives us the right to protect ourselves, where currently, many colleges suspend that right, said David Burnett, a spokesman for Students for Concealed Carry, a national group that advocates for the right to carry legally permitted guns on public college and university campuses.
According to the group, more than 200 colleges and universities in the country allow individuals to carry concealed firearms.
Very often people come back and say allowing students to carry guns is a crazy, paranoid idea, Mr. Burnett said. But were not just talking about letting students carry guns. Its only those people who already have the permits.
Ever since a shooting at Virginia Tech University left 33 people dead in 2007, the issue of whether guns should be allowed on campuses has been hotly debated in statehouses around the country.
Some 21 states have an outright ban on concealed weapons on campuses, according to data compiled last month by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two dozen states leave it up to individual universities and colleges to decide.
Five states Oregon, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Utah and Colorado now have provisions permitting the carrying of concealed weapons on campuses, the group said.
The controversy here dates to 2008, when a conservative legal foundation brought suit against the University of Colorado on behalf of two students and an alumnus from the schools Colorado Springs and Denver branches.
The suit was initially dismissed, but the state appeals court overturned the dismissal. After the university appealed, Colorados Supreme Court held that the schools gun ban, in place for more than 40 years, violated a 2003 state law allowing concealed firearms.
John Davis, one of the plaintiffs in the case, and then a graduate student at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, said he had wanted to carry his Ruger p90 pistol on campus for protection, as he often found himself leaving school alone at night.
I felt that the right to defend me and my family shouldnt be taken away because some people are afraid of firearms and nervous around them, said Mr. Davis, an Army veteran.
In the wake of the ruling, university officials have sought to soothe faculty fears, recently creating a policy that requires students who want to bring their firearms on campus to live in separate graduate student apartments and cottages.
Colorado law requires anyone with a concealed carry permit to be at least 21 years old. But the prospect of inserting a number of armed students, however small, into traditional college dorm life was a concern nonetheless, said Bronson Hilliard, a university spokesman. Of the schools nearly 30,000 students, no one has requested the special housing yet, Mr. Hilliard said, and it is unclear how many students, if any, currently carry concealed guns. The university has continued to ban guns at ticketed athletic and cultural events.
But that has not quieted the nervousness among faculty members. This month, the University of Colorado Boulder provost, Russell Moore, convened a widely attended town hall meeting to address the issue.
What was explained to the faculty was first of all, we understand what youre saying, your fears, your concerns and your doubts, Mr. Hilliard said. But just being concerned about the situation doesnt allow any faculty member to simply cancel class or refuse to teach someone because of the mere concern that somebody is exercising their concealed carry rights in the classroom.
At the campus meeting on Friday, State Representative Claire Levy, a Democrat from Boulder, said she planned to introduce a bill during the coming legislative session that would let the universitys Board of Regents decide whether guns should be allowed.
About 30 faculty members peppered Ms. Levy with questions, some raising their personal concerns about the new policy.
The classroom is a place where judgment is levied upon individuals, not unlike a court of law, said Noah Molotch, an assistant professor of geography. You interject a firearm and theres potential for a confrontation..
