An effort to ban the carrying of concealed handguns on college campuses ended June 26 out of supporters' concerns that the issue could be used as a “political football” to impact the November election.

For months, backers of the campus gun ban had been collecting signatures in hopes of putting the issue to voters on this fall's ballot. But supporters saw a political reality that caused them to pull the plug on their effort.

“In the last few weeks it became very evident that last year's gun violence prevention legislation was going to be a major campaign issue in many candidate campaigns,” Boulder resident Ken Toltz, the founder of Safe Campus Colorado, said in an email to Colorado Community Media.

Toltz was referring to legislation that became law in 2013, including bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines and the creation of universal background checks on all gun sales and transfers.

The bills stirred passionate reaction from both gun enthusiasts and gun-control advocates. The legislation passed the Democratic-majority legislature without Republican support.

Another bill that would have banned concealed weapons from being carried on college campuses was killed by a Senate sponsor prior to it receiving a vote in that chamber.

It is already illegal to carry concealed guns on K-12 campuses.

Toltz said the decision to stop the signature-gathering effort was not related to any lack of public support for the campus gun ban.

“The signature-gathering was very successful on a statewide basis, as the average voter agreed that concealed guns on college campuses is a bad idea,” he said.

Last year's gun legislation led to recall elections that ended up costing Democrats three seats in the state Senate — two Democrats lost in those recalls, while another resigned in the face of a recall.

Toltz did not directly respond when asked if he received any pressure from Democrats or other interested parties to stop the effort. But he did acknowledge the politics of gun control.

“Being nonpartisan, we decided that our issue was too important to let it become a political football,” he said.

Dudley Brown, who heads Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said petition backers were wise to halt the signature-gathering because another gun restriction effort would have “kicked the hornets' nest.”

“I think they got phone calls from Democrats saying, `This is not a good thing for our candidates for office because this will motivate gun owners in droves,'” Brown said. “Democratic operatives know that this is a dangerous thing for them to do, to tinker with this.”