Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Wednesday he has signed a bill into law that expands the places concealed-carry permit holders can take their guns in Arkansas.
Hutchinson was flanked by legislators and a National Rifle Association official at a 10 a.m. news conference and said House Bill 1249 is “consistent with my view” of how firearms should be handled in sensitive areas.
When concealed-carry permits were first introduced in Arkansas in the 1990s, “everyone was arguing that the sky would fall, that no one knew how to do this and use it,” the governor said.
“History has demonstrated, and experience has demonstrated, that this worked well,” he said.
With the passage of this law, Arkansas has moved into a “new arena” of enhanced carry balanced by a requirement for more training that will be designed by state police, Hutchinson said.
Before it reached the governor’s desk, state senators added several amendments to HB1249 to allow people with concealed-carry permits and up to eight hours of active-shooter training to take their weapons onto college campuses and into bars, churches and other public places.
Those amendments were touted as an agreement among the bill’s sponsors, Hutchinson and the NRA, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, previously said he filed HB1249 as a result of failed attempts to expand concealed carry on college campuses in previous sessions.
In 2013, Collins sponsored the current law that removed a blanket ban on allowing concealed carry on campus. The law also says public higher-education institutions can opt out of permitting guns on their grounds. Every campus in the state has since chosen to do so.
Collins’ original version of HB1249 nixed an institution’s ability to opt out, allowing staff and faculty to be armed on campus if they had a concealed-carry permit. That version passed the House last month, but its scope was expanded in the Senate.
Now, the law applies to all permit holders, if they take the added training, and permits concealed carry in a variety of additional public places, including the state Capitol. Guns are still barred from courtrooms, prisons, dormitories and college grievance hearings, the paper reported.
At the Wednesday news conference, Collins said the bill's intent is to keep people safe. He described the profile of a mass shooter as someone who plots and plans well in advance.
“The one thing they cannot do is plan for a good guy or good gal with a gun who might interdict their plans,” the representative said.
Several lawmakers commented on the back-and-forth negotiating it took to get the bill into a passable form. Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, spoke briefly on an amendment to the law he filed Tuesday that would, in part, give an exemption to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sceinces' College of Medicine campus and the state hospital.
When asked if people will be able to bring guns to Razorbacks games, Hutchinson said that a “bad guy” could already get a gun into the stadium because there are no magnetometers.
“Under this current law, if you’ve got the enhanced training, then you would be able to go into that facility,” he added.
Read Thursday's Democrat-Gazette for full details.
