It doesn’t take a college degree to fi gure out how most, if not all, institutions of higher education in Arkansas will respond to the new state law allowing faculty and staff to carryhandguns on campus.
The law is the extremely watereddown version of state Rep. Charlie Collins’ initial desire to allow any concealed handgun permit-holder to tote his weapon on Arkansas’ college campuses.
His operating theory over the last couple of years was that college campuses have provento be attractive targets for gun violence, so why not even the playing field by authorizing permitted citizens to protect themselves and others?
Few people - at least among fellow lawmakers - were convinced the approach would lead to an increase of security at colleges. When the 2013 session of the Arkansas General Assembly rolled around, Collins took a different tack. His House Bill 1243 would have allowed faculty and staff of Arkansas’ public universities - not students - to carry handguns on campus if they held state-issued concealed-carry permits. In addition to their daily educational duties, these public employees would be given extraordinary permission to become an undercover threat response force, albeit with little to no training.
Early on in the session, it became abundantly clear the bill lacked enough support to become law, so Collins continued his compromising ways to increase to odds he would get pro-gun legislation passed. He amended his bill to give boards of trustees at public universities the legal authority to annually opt out of his bill’s requirements. That, apparently, rendered the bill meaningless and harmless enough that lawmakers saw an opportunity for a pro-gun vote that didn’t force anyone to do anything. Well, that’s only partially accurate. The law now forces colleges and universities across the state to make their initial decisions about opting out of the so-called professor-carry provisions. Just the other day, the board of NorthWest Arkansas Community College voted to keep guns off campus - at least among those people who abide by laws. We will be shocked if any major institution of higher education chooses to allow Collins’ law to open their campus to guns carried by faculty and staff. NorthWest Arkansas Community College joins the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, East Arkansas Community College in Forest City and National Park Community College in Hot Springs as institutions that have sidestepped Collins’ desired introduction of state-backed guns on campuses.
The boards of trustees that govern the state’s two largest university systems - the University of Arkansas System and the Arkansas State University System - are scheduled to vote on the opt-out May 23. Our suspicion is the only outcome from Collins’ bill will be added paperwork and bureaucracy to accomplish the same status that existed before the legislation was ever passed. Nonetheless, we applaud the community college in Bentonville and, in anticipation, the University of Arkansas System for making the wise choice to oppose the expansion of gun rights on college campuses. While it’s true some college campuses have been targeted, the likelihood remains that most students will complete their college careers without facing any murderous shooting sprees.
It remains the duty of these campus administrations to ensure their police forces are ready to respond and to deter crimes on campus.
Faculty, staff and students should be allowed to focus on teaching and learning.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 05/17/2013