Arizona Defies Public Opinion, Passes Guns On Campus Bill

Two days after the Jan. 8 Tucson shootings, as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lay in a medically induced coma, Arizona's House of Representatives introduced the session's very first piece of legislation: a bill allowing college professors to carry concealed weapons on campus.

A similar bill, SB 1467, which would allow anyone to carry a gun on the sidewalks and roads of public universities, sailed through the House last Thursday, despite the fact that the majority of Arizonans oppose sending guns to college.

"The legislature is being very extreme on gun issues, and it couldn't be more opposite to what the public wants," said Hildy Saizow, President of Arizonans for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

Nearly 70 percent of Arizonans and 56 percent of gun owners did not want to expand gun rights on college campuses, according a February poll by American Viewpoint, a Republican-leaning research company.

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Father of slain student's emotional testimony halts Florida law allwoing guns on campus

The Florida state Senate is considering a controversial bill, introduced last month, that would allow guns to be carried on college and university campuses. Like 49 other states, Florida currently bans firearms from campus, but state Sen. Greg Evers (R) wants permitted weapons allowed on campus because “it’s just a good idea that people be allowed to carry firearms wherever they feel the necessity to protect themselves.”

The state Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee was considering the bill yesterday when an unexpected speaker arrived: Robert Cowie, whose daughter Ashley was killed last month at a Florida State fraternity house when an AK-74 owned by one of the fraternity members accidentally discharged. Reading from a prepared statement, but frequently overcome with emotion, Cowie — who described himself as a registered Republican

that never missed an election — pleaded with legislators not to pass the bill:

COWIE: As parents, we send our children to college campuses hoping that they are safe enough places, and that university officials are doing all that they to monitor the safety of our young people. When we packed Ashley’s belongings into boxes to take her things to Tallahassee, we never expected to be bringing her home in a different sized box. This proposed change to the law will place an undue burden on the universities to keep our campuses safe. Ashley was shot to death at a time when the law prohibited weapons on campus, and still this tragedy has occurred…. Allowing guns in an atmosphere of college parties puts everyone involved at increased and undue risk.

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