Guns on university campuses are again in the news, following the shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville earlier this month. Both sides in the gun control debate in America are now rowing over plans by Colorado State University to ban concealed weapons on all its campuses.

A ban was approved last year by the institution’s board of directors and the board of governors are due to meet to discuss the language of the ban today (KRDO).

This does not sit well with some.

Student paper the Rocky Mountain Collegian notes one student opposing the ban has produced a report claiming that violent crime at CSU has dropped since 2003, when the university originally permitted ‘concealed carry’.

Adding to the university’s problems is county sheriff Jim Alderden, who says he will not jail anyone violating a ban on concealed weapons (KUNC).

Guns at universities are always a sensitive topic, but emotions are particularly high at the moment after the shootings in Huntsville and a subsequent incident at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb

The chief suspect in the Huntsville shooting, Amy Bishop, has not been far from the headlines recently. The neuroscientist’s defence attorney has claimed she does not remember the shooting but she is “aware of what she’s done. She’s very sorry for it.” (AP.)

Officials are also rowing over the 1986 shooting of Bishop’s brother. Amy Bishop was not charged for this shooting and former prosecutor William Delahunt and local police are both angrily denying they are responsible (Boston Herald, Boston Globe).