Governor vetoes ‘campus carry’ law in Georgia
Georgia’s Republican governor vetoes a bill allowing concealed handguns on college campuses, rejecting a proposal from his own party.
ATLANTA — Georgia’s Republican governor vetoed a bill Tuesday allowing concealed handguns on college campuses, rejecting the proposal that a legislature controlled by his own party had easily approved in an election year.
The bill would have allowed anyone 21 and over to carry a concealed handgun with the proper permit on a public college or university campus. The veto decision came weeks after Gov. Nathan Deal, who is in his second and final term, rejected a bill shielding op- ponents of gay marriage. That measure was backed by conservative groups but blasted by more than 500 Georgia companies as discriminatory.
Deal’s decision to kill the gun bill isn’t a complete surprise. After it passed the legislature, he asked members to pass followup bills addressing concerns about access to oncampus day care centers, spaces where high school students can take collegelevel courses and where disciplinary hearings are held. They declined, saying the original bill was carefully considered.
Deal offered a lengthy, written veto message, citing legal precedents and even harking back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1824, and their stance opposing guns on the University of Virginia campus.
He also referred to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion by recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia. Deal said Scalia wrote that schools and government buildings should be considered “sensitive places” under the Second Amendment.
“From the early days of our nation and state, colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed,” Deal said. “To depart from such t i me-honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said he was disappointed by his fellow Republican’s veto, but added that it’s not the end of the discussion.
“At a time when our Second Amendment rights are under attack, I believed and still believe that it is very important that we do all that is necessary and proper to strengthen our constitutional protections,” he said.
The National Rifle Association was one of the premier lobbying groups behind the bill, and voiced its disapproval of the veto in a statement Tuesday.
NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said the measure would have made Georgia campuses safer for Deal’s constituents.
The powerful governing board of the University System of Georgia opposed the so-called “campus carry” measure. All 29 public university and college presidents, along with their police chiefs, also said they opposed the bill.
Other states have drawn praise and criticism for similar decisions, including Texas, where a prominent dean at the University of Texas left the school due to a new law effective Aug. 1 that will allow concealed handguns in school buildings and in classrooms.
Nine states currently have laws on the books allowing concealed handguns on campus, including: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 23 states leave the decision to ban or allow weapons up to the individual colleges.