Full Arkansas Senate gets campus-gun bill

The latest version of a proposal to allow concealed handguns on Arkansas' public college campuses was approved by a Senate panel Tuesday.

The bill would allow permit holders age 25 and older to take handguns to campus if they complete additional training.

Unlike a version of the legislation approved by House lawmakers, the recent revision would include students. The original House version, introduced by state Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, limited concealed-carry guns on campus to faculty and full-time staff members. The bill's next stop is the Senate floor. The House must approve any changes made by the upper chamber.

The change proposed in a Senate amendment filed Monday has not appeased Democrats and college administrators who remain opposed to campus carry.

Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, the Senate sponsor of House Bill 1249, called his amendment a "compromise between reasonable parties," which included himself, Collins, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock. Sen. Hutchinson is the governor's nephew.

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"How did we end up with a bill worse than the original bill?" lamented Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, as he stood in the hallway outside the committee room after Tuesday's vote.

Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, was the only member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against the legislation as amended.

By allowing older students to carry guns on campus, the revised bill greatly increases the population within a college community able to apply for a permit to take a gun to school.

People 25 and older made up 28.3 percent of all enrolled students in the state's 33 public colleges and universities as of fall 2016, according to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

Out of the total 149,462 students, 42,348 were 25 or older.

Allowing students to take guns into the classroom would have "a chilling effect on the learning environment," said John Pijanowski, chairman of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's faculty senate and an educational leadership professor, in a text message.

"Putting guns in the classroom changes the culture of a learning environment in important ways," said Pijanowski, an outspoken critic of the earlier version of the bill. "Faculty challenge students, provoke deep thinking, push students beyond their comfort zone, sometimes give them bad news during incredibly stressful and high-pressure assignment periods."

By allowing students to potentially have guns during these moments, "many people will change how they teach and learn," Pijanowski said.

Under the newly amended bill, campus police departments could request a list of people who have received the additional training from the Arkansas State Police. However, that information would not be available to college administrators, according to Collins.

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has 5,382 students who are 25 or older, a tally that includes graduate students.

The total exceeds that of staff and faculty members at UA, who would have been the only eligible permit-holders to carry weapons on campus in the first version of the bill. The university employs 3,150 full-time staff members and 1,353 faculty members.

Trustees for the UA System have voted yearly to disallow concealed-carry weapons on campuses. A 2013 law expanded concealed-carry rights on campuses but allowed for schools to opt out, so long as they did so by a vote every year. Every public college and university since then has chosen to prohibit concealed-carry guns, and top university leaders this year have spoken out against the proposed law.

The bill was amended in the Senate last week to require more training for faculty and staff members with concealed-carry permits before they could take their guns to school, which Collins objected to, saying it would discourage otherwise eligible participants. He and Garner proposed a compromise that would add the training requirement but remove the part of the bill limiting campus carry to employees.

The gap was bridged in the latest amendment, which was filed by Garner and adopted by the committee Tuesday.

Sen. Hutchinson had proposed the training requirement opposed by Collins and Garner.

All but five public colleges and universities have at least 20 percent of their enrollments made up of students 25 and older.

At community colleges in the state, enrollments are lower but the percentage of older students generally is higher.

In fall 2016, community colleges in Arkansas on average had 32.1 percent of enrollment from a 25-and-older population, or 15,606 students out of a total enrollment of 48,603.

Alaina Hartman, a 26-year-old student at Northwest Arkansas Community College, said she thinks the amended bill makes things more dangerous than the earlier version that excluded students, though she said she's opposed to both.

"I feel like faculty and staff are invested in the institution," said Hartman, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Northwest Arkansas Community College Eagle View.

"Also, adding guns into a situation, especially a college where debates can get heated in classrooms and things, it just feels less secure rather than more secure," Hartman said.

Hartman wondered how police would be able to identify whether someone completed the additional training requirement now in the latest proposal.

Capt. Gary Crain with the UA Police Department explained why campus police might approach someone suspected of carrying a weapon.

"The permit allows a person to carry concealed, so if in any way the fact that the person is armed comes to the attention of the Police Department, then our concern is why is that weapon being revealed," Crain said. "So we contact the person based on that issue."

Curtis Harrell Jr., an English professor at Northwest Arkansas Community College, said he supports both the older version of the bill and the latest amendment.

Harrell said he's been a concealed-carry permit holder for several years. In the circumstance of a teacher and students being forced to stay together in a classroom during an attack, "I think most instructors would instinctively try to protect their students," Harrell said.

However, from his concealed-carry training, Harrell said he understands that using a gun is only allowed if there are no other options -- so he would not try to leave a classroom to seek out a shooter, he added.

Despite his support of campus carry, Harrell said he did not think students should be allowed to take guns to school.

"I am disturbed that students would be allowed to carry, and I don't agree with that part of it," Harrell said. "I think it should be faculty and staff, because we've gone through a hiring process" as well as yearly performance reviews, he added.

Calendar

The calendar of public events of the 91st General Assembly for today, the 45th day of the 2017 regular session.

Committees

8 a.m. Special Language Subcommittee of the Joint Budget Committee, Room B, Multi-Agency Complex.

10 a.m. House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs Committee, Room 130.

10 a.m. House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee, Room 138.

10 a.m. House City, County and Local Affairs Committee, Room B, Multi-Agency Complex.

10 a.m. House Insurance and Commerce Committee, Room 149.

10 a.m. House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, Room 151.

10 a.m. Senate Education Committee, Room 207.

10 a.m. Senate Judiciary Committee, Room 171.

10 a.m. Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, Room 272.

10 a.m. Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, Old Supreme Court chamber.

Noon. House Rules Committee, Room B, Multi-Agency Complex.

1 p.m. Executive Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council, Room 205.

Upon adjournment of the Senate. Senate Judiciary Committee, Room 171.

10 minutes upon adjournment of the Senate. Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee, Room 309.

15 minutes upon adjournment of the Senate. Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, Room 272.

15 minutes upon adjournment of the House. House Rules Committee, Room B, Multi-Agency Complex.

House

1:30 p.m. House convenes.

Senate

1:30 p.m. Senate convenes.

A Section on 02/22/2017