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Campus conceal carry bills debated in Emerging Issues

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The House Emerging Issues Committee heard two bills Monday that would end the ban on concealed carry at colleges and universities, albeit each with their own handful of exceptions and limitations.

Rep. Mike Kelley’s, R-Lamar, HB 1910, would instead make the concealed carry guidelines and opt out program, making concealed carry legal on campuses and requiring individual universities to apply with the Department of Public Safety for exceptions to that rule. The DPS would need to ensure that the school has security personnel and electronic screening devices at each entrance to each building on campus, that each person entering a building be screened by the security personnel, and that any weapons obtained by security personnel be held until the rightful owner leaves the building.

It has a fiscal note of $991 million, assuming each state university complied with those requirements to receive the exception.

Taylor
Taylor

HB 2698, sponsored by Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Nixa, is more direct, simply saying that concealed carry would be legal on campuses except from select locations.

Taylor introduced both bills as Kelley had surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Proponents, namely College Republicans from campuses across the state, advocated that the legislation would make campuses safer in the event of school shootings or as deterrents to criminal activity, like murder and rape, in which self-defense is paramount.

Jaxe Buxton, the president of the Missouri Federation of College Republicans, said that the desire to seek a college degree did not preclude people of their Second Amendment rights.

“We do not believe a student gives up the right to protect themselves when they step in the doorstep of a college university,” he said. “We do not believe that just because you pursue higher education does not mean you give up the right to protect yourself.”

Opponents of Kelley’s legislation disagreed with the premise and found the requirements for an exemption unrealistic.

“The cost of securing all those buildings… It’s simply not a viable alternative,” said Paul Wagner from the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri. “That bill is designed to allow campus carry without regulation.”

Wagner also opposed the legislation because it would revoke power away from the decision-making boards of universities, who he noted have unanimously put armed guards and other safety provisions on campus and that there should not be free reign on campus for people to take loaded weapons, including into chemistry labs or disciplinary hearings..

“What I’ve been told by my presidents, there is no bill they will support,” Wagner said.

Rep. Ron Hicks, R-St. Peters, spoke of his own experience protecting himself with his own firearm and was incredulous at the fact that Wagner did not put faith in the responsibility of the students.

“You trust these students with these chemicals, with stuff that can do all this harm, we trust them to be in a chem lab, but we don’t trust them with a firearm.”