College Faculty Can Pack Heat In Tennessee — Opponents Say Guns Won’t Make Campus Safer


College faculty in Tennessee are now allowed to pack heat on campus.

In an attempt to make campuses safer and despite opposition from students, faculty, and police, the state has approved a bill that will allow employees to carry handguns, with certain restrictions, the Washington Post reported.

The end game for some legislators is to eliminate gun-free zones. Meanwhile, police worry that having more firearms at college will actually make the environment more dangerous.

The House sponsor, Republican Rep. Andy Holt, explained his reasoning to the Tennessean.

“The purpose of running the bill is campus safety. It’s not an effort to create an armed battalion … but to allow individuals to protect and defend themselves. My intention is to eliminate all gun-free zones, whether it’s the legislature or a college campus.”

Students are next on the list to carry handguns, because Holt argue “these are adults.”

The bill became law Monday without the signature of Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, who argued that college campuses should make their own decisions.

This bill is just one of many proposed laws in other states have drafted in response to mass shootings across the country. In 2014, fourteen states considered bills that would allow concealed guns at colleges and universities. Liberty University in Virginia has eased its restriction on firearms in residence halls. Texas wants to allow the weapons in classrooms and dorms. Proponents of such laws believe that more guns will increase campus safety during active shooter situations.

The legislation in Tennessee does come with restrictions.

Full-time staff can’t bring guns into stadiums or gyms, students can’t be armed, and neither faculty nor staff can pack heat in hospitals or at meetings in which disciplinary or tenure issues are being discussed. Those who want to carry must be valid permit holders and tell police with jurisdiction over the property ahead of time. The legislation also protects the college from liability if a faculty member is trigger happy and shoots their gun by accident.

The measure has met with seemingly widespread opposition at Tennessee campuses, where some faculty have threatened to quit over the issue.

Will Roberts, who is president of one college’s Student Government Association, admitted that he’s a gun owner and shoots “for sport,” but “it just comes to a place where you have to draw the line on the argument that more guns means more protection.”

The University of Tennessee even conducted a poll and found that 87 percent disagreed that “allowing guns on campus is in the best interest of the community.”

In response, another sponsor, Sen. Mike Bell, said “I think some of these people need to take their medication.”

“Maybe this will give UT a chance to hire some conservative teachers if we have a mass exodus of some of these liberals who responded to this. There’s a few reasonable comments on here, but not many.”

According to law enforcement experts, the notion that armed faculty will create a safer environment in light of an active shooter situation is flawed. In fact, opponents have said that such situations will likely be more complicated with this law in place.

Beth Joslin Roth, policy director of Safe Tennessee Project, explained that the new law will “require (police) to scrap their FBI training protocol when it comes to responding to an active shooter situation.”

The state’s Democratic Party Chairwoman, Mary Mancini, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the law is “horrific” and proof that the “governor and the Republican supermajority … only care about the gun lobby and their wealthy donors.”

[Photo by Kreangkrai Indarodom/Shutterstock]

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