In late 2008, before President Barack Obama took office, gun rights advocates feared there might be a crackdown and turned out in droves to sweep up tens of thousands of firearms. As the Glenwood Springs Post Independent [2] frames the story, 2009 gun sales in Colorado were "hotter than a two-dollar pistol." State-approved firearm background checks were up from nearly 197,000 in 2008 to more than 202,000 just last year, according to News8 [3] in Grand Junction. The spike in sales continued despite a lack of federal anti-gun legislation. Instead, the only major gun debate has surrounded a statewide issue about whether Colorado State University should join most public colleges around the nation and ban concealed weapons. The topic will come up next week at a meeting of the Board of Governors on the Pueblo campus, with a ban potentially on the way, writes 7News [4]. There's a backdrop: the shooting spree by a professor last week at the University of Alabama. The prof, who had been passed over for tenure, shot several faculty members, killing three professors (via The New York Times [5]).