Nerf guns declared legal on CU campus -- for one night only

Last December, CU banned the use of Nerf guns in the on-campus game Humans vs. Zombies, leaving HVZ organizer Scott Serafin and his fellow renegades to face off against the undead using socks as weapons. Which require a lot of imagination to seem lethal. But the Nerf guns were out...

By Michael Roberts

March 22, 2010

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Last December, CU banned the use of Nerf guns in the on-campus game Humans vs. Zombies, leaving HVZ organizer Scott Serafin and his fellow renegades to face off against the undead using socks as weapons. Which require a lot of imagination to seem lethal.

But the Nerf guns were out again late Saturday and early Sunday, thanks to a complex deal worked out between gamers and representatives of the CU administration. Reached via e-mail, Serafin explains how it worked.

"In a nutshell, the vice dean of the engineering center agreed that we could use the engineering center from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on a Saturday to Sunday during spring break," Serafin writes. "Then we got a simulated weapons permit from UCPD [the CU campus police] that allowed everyone to use Nerf Blasters inside the engineering center only from those times."

And that's not all.

"We had signage posted and had all doors but one locked, so we could control who entered and exited," Serafin continues. "It was a very controlled environment that allowed us to use the Nerf Blasters indoors."

Since the battle, there have been no reports of students or participants being killed, blinded or maimed for life as a result of contact with a Nerf dart. That's one way of socking it to them.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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