House gives first round approval to concealed carry on campus
Bill could allow 21-year-olds to get concealed carry licenses.
Published April 9, 2009
The Missouri House has given preliminary approval to a bill that would allow persons with a license to carry concealed firearms to do so on college campuses.
On Wednesday, the House approved by a large margin a bill that would reduce the minimum age to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon from 23 to 21. The bill was amended to include language from another piece of legislation that would further modify the state's concealed carry law to allow licensed carriers to possess a firearm on campus.
Rep. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, proposed the amendment to the bill, which was approved 106-41. Rep. Scott Largent, R-Clinton, also proposed an amendment to the bill that would prevent Missouri cities and counties from passing any ordinances that would restrict the sale and lawful manufacture of firearms any further than does the state, which was approved 116-33.
The bill will have a final vote in the House as early as next week, and then will be sent to the Senate for approval.
Rep. Kenny Jones, R-Clarksburg, who proposed the bill to reduce the minimum age for concealed carry -- to which Munzlinger's and Largent's amendments were attached -- said the legislation would protect students from external threats, as well as situations such as the mass murders on the campuses of Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois University in 2008.
"Terrorists will only attack where they are sure there is no resistance," Jones said.
The incident at Virginia Tech, in which a student killed 27 fellow students and five faculty members, touched off a flurry of legislative action across the country to deal with campus security issues. Missouri is one of nine states with pending legislation that would allow concealed weapons on campuses, including Texas, where such a bill passed a committee in the state's House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Munzlinger, in defending the legislation Wednesday during debate in the House, cited a 2002 incident at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., in which two students who had firearms in their vehicles were able to subdue a 43-year-old student in the middle of a shooting rampage. The two students, 34 and 25, had law enforcement backgrounds, and one was a sheriff's deputy in North Carolina.
The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action has also cited the incident in an article on their Web site that defends the right to carry concealed weapons on campus. According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Munzlinger was the recipient of $61.25 in February from an NRA lobbyist for two separate food and beverage costs.
Munzlinger said, although campus safety issues would not be completely solved by the legislation, campus law enforcement cannot be everywhere all the time.
In a meeting with the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, Munzlinger said they discussed a possible scenario of licensed gun carriers getting into a gun battle with a shooter before police arrive, creating confusion for law enforcement.
Munzlinger said police have been in similar situations with undercover plainclothes officers, and the situation could be helped if campus law enforcement knows which students are carrying weapons.
Ultimately, he said, it is up to police as to how they deal with the situation.
"I just wanted to bring the issue to light," he said.
MU Police Department Chief Jack Watring said he does not support the legislation and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators -- of which he is a member -- opposes allowing concealed carry on campus because there is an increased likelihoods of reckless conduct, homicides, suicides and injuries to campus officers.
Watring said MUPD officers must complete 24 hours of firearms training annually, with three separate tests in which they work in different scenarios and types of light. By contrast, an 8-hour class with an additional two hours at a shooting range is the only training required for a concealed carry license.
Watring said in a situation where a shooter and legal gun owners are firing at each other in a classroom, adrenaline is running high and accidents can occur.
"There may be someone killed that's not supposed to be," he said.
