CHARLESTON — The Campus Carry Bill has drawn opponents and supporters to the Capitol as it’s worked its way toward possible – many say probable – passage in the House of Delegates on Wednesday.
Some were university students. Some wore the black shirts of the Citizens Defense League, which backed the bill last year and this year.
Some were professors from Marshall and WVU opposing the bill. Some wore red shirts. They were united under the name Moms Demand Action and also oppose the bill.
HB 2519 would allow, with specified exceptions, people with concealed carry permits to carry weapons on college campuses.
Two of the opponents assembled outside the House chamber on Monday explained their concerns.
Cynthia Gorman is a WVU professor of geography and women’s and gender studies.
“I’m concerned about having guns on campus because I don’t think it’s going to make campus any safer and I don’t think it’s going to make students any safer,” she said.
Campus carry carries the potential for guns in classrooms, accidental discharges and the volatile combination of guns and alcohol “especially among this population that at times cannot make very good decisions,” she said.
Gorman said that her courses include discussions of many controversial issues, and the exchange and examination of ideas from different perspectives.
“The potential that there are firearms in the classroom is going to stifle conversation,” she said. “I don’t think people learn in an environment where they’re fearful.”
A Higher Education Policy Commission fiscal note puts the Fiscal Year 2020 cost for the bill at $10.3 million, escalating to $11.6 million the following year, for the extra police and security officers and security equipment that will be needed at the various institutions.
Some consider that figure exaggerated. But Gorman doesn’t see how the bill can play out.
“There are so many logistical questions that are raised by this,” she said, “and we have not gotten good or clear answers on how the university’s going to ensure safety and be able to implement this bill safely.”
Brenden McNeil is a WVU geology and geography professor. He teaches large lecture classes of 350 people, and covers such contentious topics such as coal and climate change.
“We care for our students,” he said. “We want safe, open environments for our students. We know what they’re going through in this young time of their life.”
He’s not worried so much about people with permits but all the other guns, he said. He’s worried about the potential for suicide, domestic violence, violence against people of diverse backgrounds.
“I’m worried that some people will not come to WVU… because of the potential for violence.” He’s worried about the cost WVU for the security measures, about the inconsistency of prohibiting guns in spaces holding 1,000 or more but allowing them in his classroom of 350.
University Avenue, a public road, passes through campus. Some of those vehicles no doubt hold weapons, and some of the pedestrians passing the Mountainlair probably carry. This is itself poses cloudy enforcement issues.
Campus carry, he said, will make it worse. “This would introduce even more cloudy enforcement issues. Students are going to get used to carrying their gun where they go.”
He won’t know who carries because the law doesn’t allow him to know who has a permit. If a shooter entered his classroom, “I don’t know who in the audience is going to be ‘the good guy with the gun.’”
Campus police have opposed the bill and he understands their opposition. “They want to know that they are the good guys with the guns.”
As previously reported, the bill carves out 12 exceptions to carrying on campus, some of them negotiated with WVU. Among them: at events in facilities with a capacity of more than 1,000 people; daycares on campus; areas with adequate security measures in place; sole occupancy offices; areas where mental-health or patient-care counseling is being provided; high-hazardous and animal laboratories; dorms, except in common areas.
Employees required to be in residence halls who have permits may carry if in the hall on business. Institutions will provide one of two forms of safe storage for weapons on campus: a secure location in at least one residence hall or room safes.
The bill specifically cites WVU, saying if it chooses to provide secure locations, they must be in at least two residence halls in Morgantown and one each in Beckley or Keyser.
Bill proponents have said that 333 schools with campus carry have seen no ill effects. Some WVU opponents shared a handout prepared by The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus that lists incidents from across the county.
Here are a few of those:
— Colorado University-Denver, 2012. A staff member with a concealed carry permit accidentally shot herself and wounded another person while trying to unjam her gun.
— University of Northern Colorado, 2016. A male was found dead in a campus parking lot with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
— Fort Collins (Colo.) Community College, 2017. A 26-year-old female student pulled a loaded gun on her professor after he confronted her about cheating.
— Idaho State University, 2014. A professor with a concealed carry permit accidentally shot himself in the foot during class. The gun was in his pants pocket.
— Delta State University (Miss.), 2015. A professor was shot and killed on campus by another faculty member over a domestic dispute.
—Tarleton State University (Texas), 2016. A concealed carry permit holder accidentally discharged his firearm in his dorm room.
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