Senate lawmakers debated guns-on-campus legislation Tuesday while failing to reach an agreement.
The debate, held Tuesday afternoon in the Senate Judiciary Committee, has lawmakers split over whether to require training, an age limit or neither before allowing concealed carry license holders to take their handguns onto campuses of public colleges and universities.
The committee, made up of seven Republicans and one Democrat, failed to recommend either of a pair of competing amendments to House Bill 1249, which was referred back to the panel last week from the Senate.
One proposal, by Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas, would have scrapped most of an eight-page amendment and replaced it with language simply stating that anyone with a permit to carry a concealed handgun can do so at public colleges.
The alternate amendment, by Senate Majority Leader Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, would require up to eight hours of active-shooter training before concealed carry licensees could take guns on public college campuses, as well as bars, churches and certain government buildings, including the state Capitol in Little Rock.
The Senate sponsor of HB1249, Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, had told reporters Monday he planned to step aside to allow Collins-Smith to present separate legislation that mimics her amendment. That changed Tuesday, he said, when he agreed to support Hendren's amendment.
Collins-Smith called her legislation "true campus carry," while Hendren said his amendment had more political support, including from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the National Rifle Association. Hendren is Hutchinson's nephew.
Anthony Roulette, an NRA lobbyist, said both amendments are good policy, while adding that the group supported Hendren's proposal.
As currently amended, HB1249 would allow concealed carry license holders who are at least 25 and with up to 16 hours of active shooter training to carry handguns on public college campuses. The original bill approved by the House last month including no training requirement or age limit, and it applied only to faculty and staff.
Garner called Hendren's NRA-backed amendment "a slam dunk deal."
Still, it failed to gain the five votes needed to move on to the full Senate. Garner said he did not think changes were needed, and that his colleagues would support the measure once they had more time to read it.
The committee voted 4-4 on Collins-Smith's proposal. Hendren's amendment failed on a voice vote in which it appeared that some members abstained.
"We simply don't believe that fidelity to the Second Amendment allows us to forsake all other rights," said Austin Bailey, the Arkansas chapter president of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, whose scarlet-shirted members have become a fixture at the state Capitol.
The group supports the right of college administrations to adopt gun-free policies, which every public campus in the state has instituted under current state law.
Referring to the group at Tuesday's meeting as "mothers here against guns or whatever we have," Collins-Smith said that as a mother, she had grave concerns about her adult daughter's ability to protect herself. Collins-Smith printed out two black-and-white photos of her daughter to hand out to the committee.
Hendren responded that there was no political support for a bill that removes all restrictions but a license. His amendment would keep in place bans on guns being taken into dorm rooms as well as to disciplinary meetings. Those protections had been sought by college officials.
"Your daughter is not going to be protected by a bill that cannot pass," Hendren said.
A Section on 03/08/2017