Guns on Campus: Overview

This article was orignally posted on the National Conference of State Legislatures’ blog on May 31, 2016.
In the wake of several campus shootings, the most deadly being the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech University, states are considering legislation about whether or not to permit guns on college campuses. For some, these events point to a need to ease existing firearm regulations and allow concealed weapons on campuses. Others see the solution in tightening restrictions to keep guns off campuses.
In 2013, at least 19 states introduced legislation to allow concealed carry on campus in some regard and in the 2014 legislative session, at least 14 states introduced similar legislation. In 2013, two bills passed, one in Kansas that allows concelaed carry generally and one in Arkansas that allows faculty to carry. The Kansas legislation creates a provision that colleges and universities cannot prohibit concealed carry unless a building has “adequate security measures.” Governing boards of the institutions, however, may still request an exemption to prohibit for up to 4 years.Arkansas’ bill allows faculty to carry, unless the governing board adopts a policy that expressly disallows faculty to carry. Tennessee passed a similar bill to Arkansas’ in 2016, whic also permits higher education faculty to carry handguns after notifying local law enforcement. In 2015, Texas became the most recent state to allow concealed carry weapons on college campuse...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - August 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Gun Violence Source Type: blogs