Campus- gun bill pulled for less- restrictive plan

The sponsor of campus carry legislation left sitting in a Senate committee has passed the torch to a colleague with a less- restrictive plan to allow guns on college campuses.

More than a month after the House delivered its guns- on- campus proposal to the upper chamber, House Bill 1249 has been rewritten by lawmakers enough times that it necessitates a fresh start, Sen. Trent Garner, R- El Dorado, said Monday.

So Garner — who handled HB1249 in the Senate — said he’s pulling the bill back to allow an alternate proposal, Senate Bill 594 by Sen. Linda Collins- Smith, R- Pocahontas, to get a shot.

Filed on Friday, CollinsSmith’s bill — titled the “True Campus Carry Act” — would allow any concealed carry permit holder to take a handgun onto the grounds of a public college or university. HB1249, in its current version, would allow campus carry by a permit holder who is at least 25 and trained in active shooter situations.

Dissatisfied with lawmakers’ attempts to find an appropriate level of restrictions for a campus carry bill, Collins- Smith said she chose to go with her own proposal, which she expected would find broad appeal with the state’s voters.

“You can’t be pro- gun enough in Arkansas,” CollinsSmith said.

Arkansas law does not forbid a person with a concealed carry permit from taking a handgun on public college campuses, but the law allows the board of each institution to pass a ban on concealed handguns. Since the law was enacted in 2013, every public college campus in the state has enacted such a policy.

Higher education officials, as well as gun- control advocates and some Democrats, have said they oppose changing the current policy.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has said he supports the status quo, favors that an additional training requirement be included with legislation that reaches his desk, a spokesman said Monday.

In the House, HB1249 sponsor Rep. Charlie Collins, R- Fayetteville, said that after attempts to pass campus carry legislation in 2011, 2013 and 2015, he believes his proposal is still the right one on which to reach a compromise.

Before the bill- filing deadline Monday, he filed a new bill that matches the original

language of HB1249, but said his “focus” is still finding a solution to HB1249 itself.

The version of HB1249 that left the House with a vote of 7122 on Feb. 2 allowed only faculty and staff members at public colleges and universities to carry concealed weapons. It included a number of exceptions, such as a prohibition against carrying in day care centers, and allowing the Clinton School of Public Service and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus to remain gun- free.

Then lawmakers started pitching their own ideas about who would get to take guns onto campus.

First, while the legislation was being considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R- Little Rock, proposed requiring staff

get 16 hours of active shooter training before being able to take their guns to school. The committee, which includes Garner and Collins- Smith, rejected Sen. Hutchinson’s proposal and sent the bill to the Senate.

In the full Senate, Sen. Hutchinson found enough support to tack his amendment onto the bill, prompting backlash from its original sponsors. Collins said Sen. Hutchinson’s change “virtually ruins” his bill.

Garner and Collins said the addition of a training requirement would have to be offset by expanding the population of permit holders who could carry, possibly to students as young as 21, which is the minimum age for a license. Eventually, an accord was struck to require some extra training while setting the age requirement at 25.

The compromise was shortlived, however, when the National Rifle Association came out against the new language.

Some pro- gun- control lawmakers also said the new proposal was worse.

In late February, CollinsSmith proposed an NRAbacked amendment, the sixth attempt to alter the bill, that was similar to the separate legislation, SB594, that she has since filed.

A few days later, Garner had HB1249 returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on his request.

“She can run her bill; she can do what she wants to with it,” Garner told reporters Monday, saying he would likely vote in favor of Collins- Smith’s bill. “I might have a couple of questions, but I think she can run that and now, it’s her baby and see if she can deliver it.”

Collins- Smith said she is open to reviewing lawmakers’ attempts to amend SB594, though she questioned whether doing so would be politically expedient.