Campus gun bill stirs furor

Would allow firearms in cars

By Art Jester And Ryan Alessi

[email protected], [email protected]

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As the rhetoric in Frankfort rolled to a boil, Kentucky's public universities expressed solid opposition Wednesday to a bill that would allow people to bring firearms onto campuses as long as the weapons remained in vehicles.

In Frankfort, state Rep. Kathy Stein, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill amounts to "micromanaging" institutions of higher education, and the legislation is unlikely to get out of her committee for a vote in the full House. "Meddling in the affairs of the universities and community and technical colleges is not high on our list of priority issues," Stein said.

That infuriated the bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, who said he plans to step up his work to force the bill past Stein, whom he labeled a "gun-control Sally."

Damron said he thinks he now has more than 50 co-sponsors and could win if Stein doesn't block House Bill 114.

The Jessamine County lawmaker, who is not on the Judiciary Committee, predicted his bill could get approved by 10 of the 15 committee members and would pass on the House floor 85-15. He declined to identify the members who would vote for the bill but said the list of co-sponsors gives a clear indication of overwhelming bipartisan support.

Damron said that putting a roadblock in front of his bill was "like sticking a knife in my eye."

He said Stein represents the "same old anti-gun group, the blatant gun-control mentality that doesn't sell in Kentucky."

"She's gun-control Sally up here," he said from his Frankfort office. Damron said Stein is using a "pocket veto," in which a committee chairman prevents a bill from being considered.

He said he could respond in one of several ways: having committee members ask Stein to let the panel vote on the bill; get the House leadership to ask her to let the bill proceed; gather a "discharge petition" to force the bill out of the committee; or get House leaders to assign the bill to another committee.

A lobbyist from the National Rifle Association will come to Frankfort next week to step up work on behalf of the bill, he said.

"I never imagined this was going to be a major battle," Damron said.

Kentucky's public universities do not allow firearms to be brought onto campus, with the main exception being the weapons used by campus police.

As an example of the universities' opposition, Eastern Kentucky University President Doug Whitlock said he is licensed to carry a concealed weapon but does not bring a firearm to the Richmond campus because it is against university policy.

To support a change in the weapon ban, Whitlock said, "I would have to be convinced that having firearms on campus contributes to safety rather than adding to the risk."

Whitlock said he thinks the issue is "best left to the universities and their boards of trustees, rather than being legislatively mandated."

John Drees, a University of Louisville spokesman, said: "Our position has been pretty clear for a long time. In our opinion, keeping firearms off campus is a good idea. We are concerned with any measure that would allow firearms on campus."

Damron said the opposition from the campuses revealed they are the "same kind of bastions of liberalism that I didn't think we had at our state universities. I am upset with them."

He said he introduced the bill to protect his constituents who work at the University of Kentucky, such as UK hospital nurses, who say they are afraid of walking to their cars in the dark after work. He said he introduced the measure to allow people who park on public university property to keep a legally registered gun in their vehicles, which they could do "if they worked for anybody else."

"Anywhere else you can have a gun in your car," Damron said Tuesday.

Considerable national attention has focused on the issue of guns on campus since last spring's Virginia Tech massacre, in which a gunman, who was also a student, killed 32 people on campus and then killed himself.

Kentucky State University President Mary Evans Sias said she is satisfied with KSU's policy that prohibits weapons from being brought onto the Frankfort campus.

Sias also said she thinks the issue should be decided by the individual campuses. She said she is concerned with any effort to establish a single policy for all of the public universities.

Northern Kentucky University President James Votruba said he didn't want to dodge questions, but he had not studied the bill.

However, Votruba said, "In principle I'm against having firearms on campus."

University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. said he would not expand on a statement Tuesday from UK spokesman Jay Blanton, who said that the weapons ban was in the university's best interest and it was a decision that should rest with UK's Board of Trustees.

Carol Jordan, director of UK's Center for Research on Violence Against Women and a leader on campus safety issues, said she continues to support UK's policy of banning firearms for the "protection and safety of the UK campus."

"From the point of view of campus safety, I am extremely pleased with the policy we have in place," Jordan said.

Kaveh Tagavi, a UK professor and president of the Senate Council, a campus policy group for faculty, administrators and students, said the authority to bear firearms on campus should be reserved for the campus police.

Otherwise, the threat of someone bearing a concealed weapon could destroy trust between faculty and students, Tagavi said.

"Under the present policy, I don't have a weapon, and neither do my students," Tagavi said.

He said he is particularly concerned about what could happen after an intense class discussion about a controversial topic.

"If a student is upset and the car might just be two minutes from the classroom," a real threat to safety could exist, he said. Tagavi said he was speaking for himself and not for the Senate Council, which has not addressed the issue.

On campus Wednesday, many students expressed concerns about the bill, though one said he supports the idea.

Jason Smith, a junior business major from London, said he sees the bill as a safety issue.

"I would favor it, but I know these people around here can't handle guns," he said, chuckling.

Nick Phelps, president of UK's Student Government Association, said he thinks the UK campus is a safe place.

"Basically I just don't understand the motivation or the need for the bill," Phelps said.

Phelps said allowing guns on campus, even if they are kept in vehicles, "increases the risk" of an incident when "we are too fresh off too many shootings," such as last spring's Virginia Tech massacre.

Chuck Clenney, a senior English major from Covington, said the bill is "ridiculous."

"I don't think the campus is a place where guns need to be," he said. "It's a place of learning."