Legislator wants guns legal on AZ college campuses

An Arizona lawmaker has introduced several bills in the state Legislature that would allow both students and teachers to carry concealed weapons on college campuses.

The sponsor of the carry guns on campus measures, District 4 Sen. Jack Harper, told the Associated Press he didn’t want to be seen as trying to take advantage of the Tucson tragedy, but he said the legislation was vital, given the deadly shootings on university campuses and the Arizona Board of Regents’ policy banning guns. The Regents set statewide college policies and currently prohibit teachers and students from carrying concealed weapons on campus.

“University professors are tired of feeling like sitting ducks,” Harper said.

District 23 Rep. John Fillmore supports Harper’s legislation. “I believe we have a God-given right to arm ourselves,” Fillmore said. “We can’t let the actions of some wacko affect our liberties.”

Dennis Jenkins, president of Central Arizona College, sees the matter differently. He believes it would be a serious mistake for the Legislature to pass a measure allowing guns on college campuses.

“Having students and teachers carrying guns will put more people at risk,” he said. “Things are tough enough already.”

Currently only Utah allows concealed weapons on college campuses, and 24 other states have bans, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

For the past three years, Arizona lawmakers have introduced a series of bills aimed at allowing concealed weapons on campus. Each time, the bills have failed to garner sufficient support to become law.

“I am supportive of these measures, but I am not pushing for them to be passed,” Fillmore said of Harper’s bills. “If they come before me for a vote, I will vote yes. If there were a few people armed at the event in Tucson, maybe there would have been a few less people murdered.”

While Fillmore feels an armed citizenry would increase public safety, there is some evidence to the contrary.

Joe Zamudio, an armed bystander at the incident in Tucson, told MSNBC he nearly shot the man who disarmed the alleged gunman, after mistaking him for the shooter.

Two studies, one by the National Research Center published in 2004 and a second by Stanford University published in 2010, found that crime rates either remained constant or increased with the implementation of right-to-carry laws.

“At the community college level, we are going to work against these bills,” Jenkins said of Harper’s legislation.