Melissa Ross
Opposition to Florida’s campus carry bill is growing on the state’s college campuses, says one spokesman for Sunshine State academia.
“Campuses are exponentially safer places than virtually any other public space, other than municipal and state buildings in which concealed weapons are strictly banned,” said John White, president of the University of North Florida chapter of the United Faculty of Florida.
“Moreover, mixing guns with controversial topics in class or with the alcohol, drugs, and impulsivity common to youth is a very dangerous proposition. If we are to give any credence to the gun lobby’s mantra that ‘guns aren’t the problem,’ we must also acknowledge that guns aren’t the solution,” White told FloridaPolitics.
White says he’s in touch with a regional representative from the advocacy group Keep Guns Off Campus, which is mobilizing against the bill on its website.
Two different bills that would expand gun rights on university property made it through committee votes on party lines last week.
“I don’t feel like your constitutional rights should stop at a line in the sand,” said Sen. Greg Evers, a Baker Republican, who is sponsoring the Senate bill.
The campus concealed carry bill and another “open carry” proposal backed by the National Rifle Association were the first two measures passed by any legislative committee in preparation for the 2016 session that gets underway in January.
Advocates of concealed carry on college and university campuses argue a permit holder packing heat could prevent a mass shooting or other violent crime (see, Virginia Tech).
However, the state’s university presidents, including staunch Republicans John Thrasher and John Delaney, are opposed to the measures HB 4001 and SB 68, along with police chiefs and the State University System’s Board of Governors.
Twenty states, including Florida, ban concealed weapons on college campuses.
