Florida Senate panel approves "guns on campus" bill opposed by universities

Times-Union

Florida Senate panel approves "guns on campus" bill opposed by universities

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2015-02-16/story/florida-senate-panel-approves-guns-campus-bill-opposed-universities#gsc.tab=0

By Tia Mitchell

TALLAHASSEE | College students oppose it. So do university faculty members, their presidents and campus police chiefs.
But that hasn’t stopped Florida’s Republican-led Legislature from keeping alive a controversial bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to bring their guns on the campuses of 12 state universities.

Senate Bill 176 was approved along party lines on Monday by the Criminal Justice Committee. The House version, HB 4005, passed its first committee last month in the same fashion. Both have more committee stops before they are ready for a floor vote.

Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker, said he supported the legislation because he was concerned for the safety of college students, especially young women who could be sexually assaulted.

“If you have one victim that’s one too many, so I feel like … [we must] allow people the opportunity to protect themselves,” he said.

The other two Republicans on the committee — Sen. Rob Bradley, of Fleming Island, and Sen. Jeff Brandes, of St. Petersburg — also voted in favor of the bill. Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, and Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, voted “no.”

“I don’t think we need mini militias on our university campuses,” Gibson said.

She urged lawmakers to consider adding a provision to the legislation that would allow individual universities to ultimately decide whether to allow guns on their grounds, similar to laws in 23 other states. Eight other states allow concealed weapons on university campuses outright.

So many people signed up to speak during public comment Monday — most of them opposed to the bill — that there was not enough time for everyone to be heard. Several students who attended the meeting complained afterward that they had been silenced.

Just as the public comment period was ending, Margie Sanfilippo broke rules of decorum and addressed Evers from her seat in the crowded room. She had taken the day off from work and drove five hours to speak, she said, and asked that he give her time at the podium.

Sanfilippo, a psychology professor at private Eckerd College, spoke about her research on gun violence and said the legislation was misguided because campus shootings are rare.

“Althought one situation is one too many, there is no evidence that allowing concealed carry on campus would prevent it,” she said. “It is mere speculation and ignorance of statistical probability to assert that armed students are the reason why shootings don’t happen on campuses.”

Proponents of the legislation often use the example of the shooting on Florida State University’s campus in November that injured two students and an employee before the gunman was killed by law enforcement. They argued that someone who was legally able to carry a gun on campus might have prevented the incident.

During Monday’s debate, college-age women became more of a focus. Evers said he felt so strongly that women should be allowed to protect themselves by carrying a gun, he would consider reducing the legal age for applying for a concealed weapon permit from 21 to 18.

Tia Mitchell: (850) 933-1321