Arizona Senate Panel would allow guns at colleges

By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
PHOENIX — A Senate panel voted Monday to let students and staff at community colleges and state universities arm themselves for protection, but not their counterparts at public schools.

The 4-3 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee came after Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, agreed to limit SB 1214 only to publicly operated colleges and universities.

Johnson said it was not a change she wanted to make. But she conceded there are not enough votes for her original bill to also allow guns into K-12 schools.

"I still feel like our little kindergartners are sitting there as sitting ducks," she said, defenseless if someone with a weapon burst into the classroom.

Approval of Johnson's legislation came as the House gave preliminary approval on voice vote to two separate measures easing restrictions on carrying a concealed weapon.

Current law makes possession of a hidden weapon by someone without a state permit a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail. HB 2630 would reduce that to a petty offense punishable by only a fine.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said Arizona law already allows just about anyone to carry a weapon in the open. He said there is no reason to impose criminal penalties on those who might just inadvertently break the law because a holster was hidden by a jacket.

"The worst tragedy that we can impose on folks is to be prosecuted when they have no culpable mental state of being a bad guy," he said.

A second measure approved by the House, HB 2389, allows individuals without a state permit to carry a weapon anywhere in a private vehicle, even hidden, without fear of arrest. Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said this measure, too, will prevent otherwise innocent people from being prosecuted because a gun on the seat got covered up by a jacket.

The legislation came over the objection of Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. He said the change would protect not only otherwise good citizens but also gang members and others who now would be able to hide weapons within easy reach.

"This is crazy," he said. Gallardo said it will only complicate the job of police officers who already are in fear every time they stop a vehicle.

Johnson introduced her legislation after a series of high-profile shootings on campuses, from the 1999 incident at Columbine High School in Colorado where teens killed 12 students and a teacher to killings a year ago at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 before shooting himself. She said the killings earlier this month at Northern Illinois University only underscored her belief that fewer might have died if there had been someone on campus with a gun who could have killed the attacker.

The legislation limits the right to carry a weapon onto a campus to someone with a state concealed-carry permit. Getting a permit requires a background check, fingerprinting and several hours of training in a state-approved class that explains the laws of when people can use deadly force as well as actually handling and firing the gun.

Only those who are at least 21 can have such permits.

Johnson said she still believes teachers and other adults at public schools should be able to carry weapons to protect students in their care. But she said even this scaled-back version serves a purpose.

She noted that some of the testimony a week earlier in favor of the measure came from students in the state university system who are 21, have permits to carry concealed weapons but are precluded now from doing so. Johnson said that included women who fear for their safety while walking across campus at night.

"If we could just allow them to be able to protect themselves as they see the need, that would be something," Johnson said.

But Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, said even this modified version of the measure is unacceptable.

"I just don't look at schools in any capacity as being a good place to have firearms, whether from someone who is deranged or someone who just happens to be a student or a faculty," he said.

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