Gun groups, educators debate restricting college policies on campus carry

Gun rights advocates and educators squared off Thursday over whether colleges should be able to regulate concealed handguns as the deadline for allowing campus carry approaches.

Public colleges and universities are required to allow concealed carry or have security measures in their facilities starting July 1. Opponents of campus carry have lobbied, unsuccessfully, throughout the session to prevent or delay it from going into effect.

Now a bill in the Kansas House would prohibit colleges and universities from regulating the possession, storage or carrying of concealed handguns. Policies or administrative actions taken before July 1 would be voided.

Kansas State Rifle Association board member Moriah Day said it would be similar to a previous law that prevented cities from “imposing restrictive gun regulations.” He criticized Kansas universities for measures such as requiring concealed weapons to be on a person at all times or prohibiting carrying a handgun with a round in the chamber.

“This legislation would preempt those and allow for across-the-board uniformity in our campus law,” Day said.

Former lawmaker Travis Couture-Lovelady, who now works for the National Rifle Association, said it was hard to take university regulations “at their word” when the universities have tried to halt campus carry’s implementation.

“University-level policies are just trying to make it more confusing and make it more restrictive so that students and faculty would just give up and choose not to carry,” he said.

Opponents of the bill argued it would take decision-making power away from community colleges and Board of Regents universities, like the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University.

“Our six universities are very different, and one size does not fit all,” said Kansas Board of Regents chair Zoe Newton.

Rep. Melissa Rooker, R-Fairway, said the bill would infringe on the rights of colleges and universities to make “decisions for themselves.”

“These are decisions driven locally based on the circumstances and conditions in specific areas,” she said.

Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, an aerospace engineering professor at KU, said universities should be able to regulate handgun use in research facilities like chemical and high-tech labs. He brought a large drone missile to the committee room, saying testing grounds would not be safe with handguns around that project.

“Responsible lab directors are left with no alternative than to shut down all experimental work on projects like this,” he said.

KU student Mikaela Warner said it was a “reckless measure that will endanger everyone at institutions of higher learning.” Warner pointed to an incident at the Statehouse this year when Rep. Willie Dove, R-Bonner Springs, left a loaded gun behind in a committee room.

“How can we expect college students to be more responsible than our legislators?” Warner asked.

Other opponents attacked the efforts of gun rights advocates more broadly.

“The Second Amendment seems to have blossomed into the only right of the Constitution that’s absolute,” said David Schauner, the Kansas National Education Association’s general counsel. “None of our rights are absolute.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Gun groups, educators debate restricting college policies on campus carry."