BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – A divisive bill to allow concealed handguns on Louisiana’s college campuses received overwhelming approval Thursday from a House committee, over the objections of higher education officials, campus police chiefs and college student leaders.
Both supporters and opponents of the bill, who packed a state Capitol committee room, claimed they were worried about safety: supporters said students, professors and college staff should be able to defend themselves on campus, and opponents said the bill could lead to greater gun violence at colleges.
The House Criminal Justice Committee approved the measure in an 11-3 vote after three hours of debate, sending it to the full House and giving support to a proposal that has been rejected by more than a dozen other states this year.
Supporters of the bill by Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, chairman of the committee and a former sheriff, said allowing people to carry guns on campus could have helped stop some of the recent shootings on college campuses around the country.
“For me, it’s not fair that we are not able to defend ourselves,” said Geoffrey Green, a student at Southeastern Louisiana University, one of two students to speak in support of the legislation.
Maurice Franks, a professor at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, said he holds a concealed handgun permit and would like to be able to carry the gun on campus, noting he works late and often walks to his car at midnight.
“I park in the same law school parking lot in which a fellow law professor’s car was riddled with bullets by drug dealers a couple of years ago … Persons on college campuses need to be able to protect themselves. Criminals don’t obey firearm free zones,” Franks said.
An array of college student leaders and the state’s higher education chief spoke against the measure, saying it could make college campuses more dangerous. The Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents opposed Wooton’s bill.
“We should be talking about test scores. We should be talking about scholarships. We shouldn’t be talking about guns on college campuses,” said Steven Jackson, student body vice president at Grambling State University.
Joseph Savoie, Louisiana commissioner of higher education, asked House committee members to follow the lead of lawmakers in 13 other states that considered and rejected similar legislation this year. Arizona lawmakers still are considering the fate of the proposal, he said.
Savoie noted that concealed weapons are prohibited at the state Capitol. “It is not less important to protect college students on campus than it is to protect legislators at this state Capitol,” he said.
Several campus police chiefs also opposed the bill, saying the proposal was well-intentioned but wouldn’t make campuses safer.
To get a concealed weapons permit in Louisiana, a person must be at least 21 years old. Wooton said it requires a background check and completion of a training course, and he said fewer than 25,000 people in Louisiana have received such permits.
“We’re not going to have a run on concealed gun permits. We’re not going to have 20,000 students lined up Monday morning to get a concealed gun permit,” Wooton said.
That didn’t persuade Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, who told Wooton, “This really frightens me.”
Voting for the bill were Wooton and Reps. Damon Baldone, D-Houma; Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas; Mickey Guillory, D-Eunice; Chris Hazel, R-Ball; Joseph Lopinto, R-Metairie; Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans; John Schroder, R-Covington; Gary Smith, D-Norco; Ricky Templet, R-Gretna; and Mack “Bodi” White, R-Denham Springs.
Voting against the bill were Burrell and Reps. Frankie Howard, R-Hornbeck, and Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport.
