The House passed a bill Thursday that would require public colleges and universities to allow staff members to carry concealed weapons on campus over the schools' objections.
The vote was 71-22 on a largely party-line vote. It heads to the Senate.
Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, who is sponsoring House Bill 1249, opened his arguments for his bill with a list of shooting deaths at schools around the country.
Door locks, increased training and additional campus police have certainly helped reduce the number of deaths, but Collins argued that's not enough.
"By allowing concealed- carry holders to carry on campus, we create a deterrent effect because there's somebody there who may be able to stop this plot," he said. "The plotter may decide: I'm not going to shoot people on an Arkansas campus today."
Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, who represents the University of Arkansas' campus, argued for the status quo.
In 2013, Collins sponsored a bill, which he has said he was forced to amend, that gave universities a choice whether to allow staff members to carry concealed handguns.
All of the universities in the state opted out. Since Collins filed his new bill last week, Arkansas State University System President Charles Welch, University of Central Arkansas President Houston Davis and University of Arkansas at Fayetteville Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz have said they opposed it.
Leding said local control makes sense.
"The people I represent back in Fayetteville have just made it absolutely clear that they oppose this," he said.
"A majority of the students, parents of those students, the faculty, the staff, the board of trustees, the athletic department, the University of Arkansas police department, members of the Fayetteville Police Department, have all made it clear that they oppose this bill. They don't think it will make campus safer."
But Collins said he's listened to the concerns of parents and colleges and drafted exemptions with those groups in mind.
Students would not be allowed to carry weapons on campus.
Day care centers, university hospitals and facilities close to the Clinton Presidential Center are exempt, along with areas exempted in the state's concealed-carry law like bars and sports arenas.
If a college or university put on an event with at least one security officer for every 100 people, then the school could prohibit concealed carry with previous notice.
And documented grievance and disciplinary meetings would be exempt, with previous notice.
Concealed-carry permit holders "are people we can count on," Collins said. "These people have gone to great lengths to qualify for this type of responsibility."
Outside groups have been active in the debate.
No one from the National Rifle Association has spoken to lawmakers in a public meeting, but members of the House Judiciary Committee -- which considered the bill Tuesday -- were urged to support the bill in a letter.
Echoing language in the letter, several Republicans said in the committee meeting that leaving decisions on concealed carry to individual professors and faculty members -- instead of the college trustees -- further localizes control.
And in preparation for the House vote, the Arkansas chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America held its first "lobby day," with more than a dozen members in red shirts going around the Capitol to meet with lawmakers, said chapter director Austin Bailey.
The group spoke against Collins' bill in committee on Tuesday, and said it would oppose several bills yet to be debated.
Those include a pair of Senate bills allowing handguns to be stored in locked cars in private parking lots, as well as a House bill that would expand the list of places open to concealed carry to include bars, so long as the gun holder remains sober.
Bailey's group jokingly calls the later legislation the "guns for drunks bill."
"We basically rode the halls accosting people, like just ruining their mornings in some instances, I'm sure," Bailey said. "The goal really was to do that, to talk it through and see where we could find some common ground."
The group also met with Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has said he supports the status quo of letting campuses opt out, and posted a picture of their meeting on Twitter.
Praising the governor's openness for dialogue -- and his wood-paneled office -- Bailey said her group was happy with the meeting, though Hutchinson did not offer strong support for or against the bill.
"We were all quite grateful and charmed and pleased," Bailey said.
A Section on 02/03/2017