The Senate on Thursday rejected a bid by Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas, to send back to a Senate committee a bill that would allow some concealed-permit holders to bring handguns onto college campuses.
Collins-Smith wanted to return the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider her proposed changes. Her motion to refer House Bill 1249 by Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, to the committee received six votes, but needed 18 in the 35-member Senate.
The bill, in its current amended form, would allow anyone at least 25 with an Arkansas concealed carry permit and active shooter training to bring a handgun onto a public college campus.
Collins-Smith's proposed amendment would allow any permit holder to carry a weapon on campus and not require any active-shooter training.
Permit holders must be at least 21 under state law. The National Rifle Association supports Collins-Smith's proposal, said Anthony Roulette, state liaison for the NRA.
The action led Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, who is handling the bill in the upper chamber, to delay asking for Senate approval of the bill until next week.
The original version of the bill contained no training or age limit, and applied only to faculty and staff members who had permits.
Wednesday, the Senate voted 21-10 for Garner's amendment to allow any Arkansan who is at least 25, has a permit and has undergone up to 16 hours of active-shooter training to carry concealed weapons on public college campuses. The NRA spokesman said the group didn't support Garner's amendment.
Garner told reporters there was some confusion in the Senate with "the amendment and everything and I wanted to make sure everybody was on board and ... there wasn't any changes to it ... so I will more than likely run it on Monday. We'll have some discussions over the weekend."
Asked about Collins-Smith's proposed amendment, Garner said, "I am always for less restrictions and I think that she is coming from a good place."
The current version of HB1249 is "a compromise made between reasonable parties" and different factions in the Legislature and Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Garner said.
"We want to make sure that we have the best bill possible for everybody. Her amendment would probably complicate some people's votes in the long run, so that's why I did not want to re-refer it back to the committee to be debated again. It has been there twice already. I wanted to be able to move forward as is," he said.
Collins-Smith said the existing version of HB1249 "is not a true campus-carry bill.
"It is something created for campus and so that amendment we do not like nor does the other people that are contacting us saying this is overregulated," she said.
"We don't need this to set precedent for changing the way that we have concealed carry here to add more hours because you are creating a special class of people only on a campus to do 16 hours training," she told reporters.
Asked whether she'll try to send the bill back to the Senate Judiciary Committee to try to add her amendment to it or try to add her amendment on the Senate floor, Smith said, "We'll do whatever we can to make it better.
"I will make all efforts however possible to make sure that this is a true campus carry, which means by Arkansas law says you have to be 21 years old and there is no requirement for 16 hours for concealed carry," she said.
Roulette said Collins-Smith's amendment wouldn't allow the University of Arkansas board of trustees to adopt policies to exempt areas near the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Clinton Presidential Library to keep permit holders from carrying their guns.
"The underlying bill just carries with it too many restrictions. The age limit is just unacceptable to us. ... You already have training that comes with your permit when apply for it initially, so we don't think that there is a need for additional training," he said.
A Section on 02/24/2017