Bill would allow guns on campus

It's a question that's been hotly debated since the Virginia Tech shooting in April: Should public universities be able to stop students with concealed handgun permits from carrying their weapons on campus?

Now the Virginia General Assembly will take up the matter again.
Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, has introduced a bill that would prevent public colleges and universities from taking action against employees and students with valid permits for carrying on campus.

Gilbert is no stranger to the debate. He introduced a similar bill in 2006 that would have allowed permit holders at Virginia Tech and other public colleges to carry without fear of sanctions by the university. The bill died in committee.

A spokesman for Virginia Tech lambasted the first bill, saying its defeat would help make "parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." A little over a year later, a crazed gunman killed more than 30 students and professors in the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history.
Permit holders should be able to protect themselves on campus, Gilbert said.

"We can never ensure, through any legislation, any law, any rule or any regulation that guns are not going to end up in the wrong hands," he said.

"Criminals and crazy people are always going to find a way to get guns. The only people who will not have deadly force at their disposal will be responsible citizens who want to follow the law."

But Gilbert's bill is a bad idea and would cost lives, according to Brian J. Siebel, senior attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

College students often drink heavily and sometimes use illegal drugs and engage in other risky behavior, Siebel said. A number of college students also attempt suicide.

"If you introduce guns into that setting, you're going to wind up with more dead college students," he said. Nor will requiring permits to carry on campus keep alcohol and guns separated.

"People who are binge drinkers can still get CCW licenses in the state of Virginia," he said.

"We're not arming anybody else with this legislation," Gilbert said. "All we're saying is that if you're old enough, and you're qualified enough and you've got a gun already, you're entitled to carry that gun anywhere the General Assembly says you can."

Siebel apparently takes a very dim view of Virginia's adult, court-screened college students, Gilbert said.

"If they're gun owners already, if they're carrying concealed already, and if they're drinking already — which I assume, according to the Brady Campaign that all our students are drunken idiots — then where are the instances right now of drunken students shooting up their apartments, or going out into the parking lot and getting into gunfights with people?" Gilbert asked.

Permits can't keep bad people from carrying guns, though, Siebel said. It could even make it easier for tragedies like the Virginia Tech shooting to happen again.

"Had Mr. Gilbert's law gone through [in 2006] and [the Virginia Tech shooter] had gone out and applied for a concealed carry license in order to bring guns legally onto campus, the state of Virginia would have given him a license," Siebel said.

The Virginia Tech Review Panel's report suggests otherwise, though.

In addition to passing a background check, Virginia's law requires concealed carry applicants to prove to a judge that they've had adequate firearms training before a permit is granted.

Applicants also must answer questions about their mental health status, including questions like "Have you been involuntarily committed to a mental institution?"

The Tech gunman was involuntarily committed for a short time to St. Albans Behavioral Mental Health Center in the years prior to his rampage, according to the review panel's report.

The Brady Campaign is simply "trying to paint this as some sort of 'Animal House gets guns' kind of scenario," Gilbert said. Besides, students with CCW permits already have the law on their side.

"It's not a law that says you can't carry guns on campus," he said. "The only ramification for the student is that you can get kicked out of school if you bring a gun to class."


The bill is HB 1371.