Republicans urge Obama to enforce Syria 'red line,' oppose deploying troops

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Congressional Republicans said Sunday that President Obama must stick with his vow to take action should Syria cross a “red line” by using chemical weapons on citizens, amid such mounting evidence, but cautioned against sending in troops.

"The president has laid down the line, and it can't be a dotted line,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told ABC’s “This Week.” “It can't be anything other than a red line.”

U.S. officials said last week that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad probably used chemical weapons twice in March, amid a two-year civil war in which more than 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

“For America to sit on the sidelines and do nothing is a huge mistake," Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Arizona Sen. John McCain has been among congressional Republicans most critical of the president’s stance on Syria.

He argued on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the red line strategy has given Assad a “green light” to do almost everything up to that point -- including the use of missiles, helicopter attacks and other civilian strikes that have resulted in “atrocities on a scale that we have not seen in a long, long time.”

However, he joined a bipartisan call this weekend against sending  U.S. troops into Syria.

"The worst thing we could do is put boots on the ground," McCain said.

He and fellow Hill lawmakers fear the chemical weapons could be more dangerous in the hands of U.S. enemies or those who might overthrow Assad. And he joined in calls for the United States to be part of an international force to safeguard the weapons.

“The day after Assad [leaves] is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk,” Chicago Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky told ABC. “We could be in bigger, even bigger trouble.”

Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin urged Sunday afternoon on Fox against sending troops, saying that’s exactly what the Assad regime wants.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, also said the U.S. could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. But he said the weapons must be protected from getting into the hands of enemies.

"The next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass," he told CBS, referring to the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing in which three people were killed and more than 260 others were injured.

Obama has also said Assad transferring the stockpile of weapons to terrorists would also cross the line.

The assessment that Syria used chemical weapons last month followed similar conclusions from Britain, France, Israel and Qatar -- key allies eager for a more aggressive response to the Syrian conflict.

The United States is already providing humanitarian aid and non-lethal support to Syrian opposition forces.

Obama has insisted that any use of such weapons would change his thinking about his country’s role in Syria but said he didn't have enough information to order aggressive action.

"For the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues," Obama said Friday.

Both sides of the civil war accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.

The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.

Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Colorado campus gun bans divisive, hard to enforce

DENVER –  A Colorado Senate committee will consider a gun control bill this week that would ban concealed carry on public college campuses, reversing a state Supreme Court ruling last year that forced colleges to accommodate students with concealed carry permits.

Chances are, however, few students would notice any change.

Boulder Democratic Rep. Claire Levy's bill comes as majority Democrats in both legislative chambers push gun control measures that include an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and limits on gun magazines. But campus police and some students say any change on concealed carry likely would have little impact.

"It's a difficult ban to enforce, because we have so many entrances and exits to this campus," said Ryan Huff, a spokesman for the University of Colorado Police Department.

Nevertheless, faculty have raised concerns about the potential presence of guns since the March court ruling, which said that only the legislature could create exceptions to the state's concealed carry law. Levy, whose district is home to the main campus of the University of Colorado, said it was those fears that prompted her to propose the bill.

"It wasn't so much a concerns that someone might use a weapon, but that not knowing if there was a weapon would be intimidating and inhibiting," Levy said.

Levy's concealed carry ban passed the House last month and is expected to go before the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee on Monday.

Concealed carry is available to adults 21 and older, only a portion of Colorado's college students. Without security checkpoints, enforcement is hard. And officials at several Colorado universities and colleges say they are unaware of any incidents involving a concealed carry permit holder before or after the Supreme Court ruling in March 2012.

In November, however, an employee at the University of Colorado dental school accidentally discharged her weapon inside an office at the school, slightly injuring herself and another person.

"People on our campuses report that it doesn't seem to have much of a day-to-day impact, or a visible day-to-day impact, on campus," said University of Colorado spokesman Ken McConnellogue. "It's not like (the campus police) will knock on doors and say, `Hey, you got a gun?"'

"There'd be no difference," said Zach Knight, a sophomore chemistry student at Metropolitan State University in Denver. "The whole point of concealed carry is not to know."

Knight, a 19-year-old gun owner, said he opposes the bill. He plans to get a concealed carry license when he's 21, and he wants to be able to carry his weapon on a campus that Metropolitan shares with CU-Denver and the Community College of Denver, where there's a steady flow of 45,000 students and others on and off campus.

"I'm not saying something's going to happen, but there are a lot of homeless guys around here, and what if something did?" Knight said.

Some faculty and administrators have been vocal about the desire to ban concealed weapons.

Metropolitan State's board of trustees and faculty senate voted to support Levy's bill. Faculty said they worry about a safe working environment, guns in the classroom, and the prospect of guns mixing with after-hours alcohol use.

"There is no need or purpose for guns," said Metropolitan State President Stephen Jordan. "The thought of that chills the academic environment that we'd like to have in the classroom."

Twenty-one states ban concealed weapons on public university campuses, and 23 states let colleges set their own policies, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland and Colorado are considering banning guns from campus.

The Colorado School of Mines, the Colorado Community College system and Colorado State University support the bill.

It's a turnaround for Colorado State, which was one of few state universities to allow concealed carry before the Supreme Court ruling. CSU leaders now cite a 2008 position paper by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators that advocates for gun-free campuses.

CSU spokesman Mike Hooker said he could not remember any incident related to the presence of concealed guns on campus, and supporters of concealed carry rights have often attributed Colorado State's low crime statistics to concealed carry.

From 2002 to 2003, the year concealed carry went into effect, crime rates fell at Colorado State. Proponents specifically pointed to a drop in sexual assaults. But CSU police chief Wendy Rich Goldschmidt said linking the two can be misleading and offered that she had never heard of an attempted sexual assault on campus stopped because someone had a gun.

Levy's bill has triggered debate at the University of Colorado, which was the focus of a lawsuit filed by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national advocacy group, that ultimately led to the Supreme Court ruling.

Last month, CU's elected board of regents voted to table indefinitely a resolution expressing support of concealed carry. The decision upset faculty and others on both sides of the issue.

"I don't want to avoid the issue or remain silent while the events unfold that are affecting the university and its campus," said Sue Sharkey, a Republican regent who backed the resolution.

Levy said she originally planned a bill to let each campus adopt its own policy. She said she later proposed a statewide ban because she didn't want the issue to become even more polarizing than it is and detract from university boards' academic priorities.

"I'm pleased the (CU) board decided not to weigh in, because I think this would have had the effect I was concerned about," she said.

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