A state law allowing staff members to carry guns on college campuses unless prohibited by school officials takes effect today, though most of the state’s colleges and universities have already voted to ban the weapons.

Act 226 of 2013 and more than 700 other new laws reflect the agenda of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate that controlled the Legislature for the first time in 138 years. Several of the bills had failed in previous sessions, including one governing Bible classes in public schools and another authorizing a woman to usedeadly force to defend her fetus.

Acts passed without an emergency clause take effect 90 days after the session ends.

The guns-on-campus act allows full-time faculty and staff members at the state’s colleges and universities who have gun training and permits to carry concealed handguns unless an institution’s governing board adopts a policy expressly disallowing it. Students and guests will still not be allowed to carry.

Nearly all of the state’s higher-education institutions, public and private, have voted to opt out of the new law,sponsored by Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, according to the Department of Higher Education’s interim director, Shane Broadway, and the president of the organization Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, Rex Nelson.

The University of Arkansas System and Arkansas State University and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway are among those opting out. Boards must renew those policies annually if they want them to remain in effect.

The state’s colleges and universities initially opposed the bill but dropped theiropposition when the opt-out provision was added. Collins said he expects boards to change their stand gradually.

Collins said opposition to the original bill that required campuses to allow staff members to carry weapons prepared him for the fact that most of the state’s largest institutions would choose to opt out.

“Did I create an instant change where this is going happen through the state? Absolutely not, and I understand that,” Collins said. “It’s going to take much more time for the colleges and people to get more used to the idea.”

Collins said that if Republicans secure a greater majority in the House and Senate in the 2014 election, the Legislature may be more willing to require institutions to let staff members carry weapons.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 20 states ban carrying concealed weapons on a college campus. In 24 states, each college and university can decide whether to ban or allow concealed weapons. Utah is the only state with a law specifically stating that colleges and universities cannot ban people from carrying concealed weapons.

‘JOURNEY’

Also going into effect is Act 746 by Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, which clarifies when people can legally carry a handgun in the state without a permit. Arkansas law allows handguns to be carried in certain situations, including when a person is “upon a journey” that doesn’t involve passing through a security checkpoint at a commercial airport.

But the law didn’t define what “upon a journey” means. Act 746 defines that term as “beyond the county in which the person lives.”

Some gun advocates say the new language means it’s legal to carry a handgun anytime a traveler plans on crossing a county line. But Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel, quoting a long line of Arkansas cases, said in a July advisory opinion that “a journey has long been defined as where one travels a distancefrom home sufficient to carry him beyond the circle of his neighbors and general acquaintances and outside of the routine of his daily business. … The prohibition was designed to stop the carrying of weapons among one’s habitual associates; the exception was designed to permit it when necessary to defend against perils of the highway to which strangers are exposed, and that are not supposed to exist among one’s own neighbors.’”

Legislation to explicitly allow for firearms to be openly carried in rural areas failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Sue Scott, R-Rogers.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Two laws making it a higher-level felony to traffic people for sex or work, Acts 132 by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, and Act 133 by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, also go into effect today. Human trafficking was previously a Class A felony.

A Class Y felony is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison. A Class A felony is punishable by six to 30 years in prison.

The acts make it a Class B felony to pay for sex with someone who the offender knows is a human-trafficking victim. The punishment increases to a Class A felony if the victim is a child. A Class B felony is punishable by five to 20 years in prison.

The acts also create defenses against charges of prostitution and sexual solicitation for victims of human trafficking and allow victims to file civil actions against traffickers.

The laws moved Arkansas from having nearly no human-trafficking laws to having some of the best in the country, according to 2013 figures released Wednesday by the Polaris Project, a nonprofit aimed at ending human trafficking.

Only Mississippi, New Jersey and Washington scoredhigher than Arkansas’ laws under the Polaris ranking system, which looks at whether victims who are minors can be charged with prostitution, whether the state laws cover labor and sex trafficking and whether victims can sue their trafficker for civil damages.

Among other new laws taking effect are:

Act 156 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, which gives women the right to use deadly force if they reasonably believe that their fetuses are threatened.

Act 1063, sponsored by Rep. Harold Copenhaver, D-Jonesboro, which shifts the cost of taking the General Educational Development test from the state to the test takers. It instructs the state Board of Career Education to approve fees for the tests and other assessments.

Arkansas GED Administrator Janice Hanlon said the $120 fee to take the test won’t be collected until January. Until then, it is free to take the GED through Arkansas Adult Education. She said the state Department of Workforce Education also plans to create scholarships to cover testing costs for people who complete 20 hours of adult education before taking the test. Hanlon said the scholarships would cover the full cost of the test for up to 3,000 Arkansans.

Act 725, sponsored by Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, which requires a physician who performs an abortion for a child under age 14 to submit the fetus to the state Crime Laboratory for DNA testing if criminal charges are filed. The physician or a staff member also must notify local law enforcement. According to the state Department of Health, 20 of the 3,782 abortions that were induced in Arkansas in2012 were on girls under age 15.

Act 1469, sponsored by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, which requires traditional public schools to offer homeschool students in middle and high school grades the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities starting in the 2013-2014 school year.

The law also authorizes the districts to require homeschool students to take one class on campus - either a class affiliated with the chosen activity or, if there is noaffiliated class, an unrelated course.

Act 1440 by Altes, which sets standards for school districts to create an elective “nonreligious” course for students to study the Bible and its influence on culture.

Act 579 sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Barnett, R-Siloam Springs, which requires drivers to change lanes and move over for state Highway and Transportation Department vehicles, tow trucks and utility vehicles. Not moving is punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail. Drivers already had to move over for emergency-response and law-enforcement vehicles.

Act 1337 sponsored by Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, which requires owners of primates (such as monkeys) to register their animals with the county sheriff and pay a $50 fee. It also prohibits owners of primates from taking their pets in public and holds them financially responsible for the cost to recapture primates that escape.

Act 1209, sponsored by Rep. Randy Alexander, R-Springdale, which allows dairy farmers to sell up to an average of 500 gallons of unpasteurized milk per month.

Sellers must post signs and put labels on bottles warning buyers that the milk hasn’t been pasteurized (heated to kill bacteria) and has not been inspected by the state Health Department and that the consumer assumes all liability from health problems that may arise from drinking it.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 08/16/2013