Campus gun bill awaits action in Senate

OKLAHOMA CITY — A controversial legislative proposal designed to allow guns on the campuses of state colleges and universities has cleared the Oklahoma House of Representatives and is awaiting action by the Oklahoma State Senate.

Under the terms of House Bill 2513 — authored by Guthrie Republican Jason Murphey — active-duty military personnel, honorably discharged veterans and others with firearms training could carry a concealed weapon on the campus of an Oklahoma college or university.

In a vote which fell pretty much along party lines, the bill passed the Oklahoma House 65-36; only eight of the House’s 44 Democrats voted for the measure.

Murphey told The Associated Press his bill was a “commonsense step” to expand Oklahoma’s concealed weapons law to combat campus violence.

“I don’t know what could be safer for the students than having our men and women in the military to defend them if something went down,” Murphey said Friday. “I wish there would have been someone that could have been armed in Illinois.”

It’s not sound public policy, he said, “to have a bubble around campuses, where criminals can penetrate.”

And while many officials have expressed concern over having students with concealed weapons, Murphey said the state’s concealed carry permitting procedure “has done very well in the past 12 years.”

“I think the success of that program speaks for itself,” he said.

In Cleveland County, the county’s three Republican House members — Scott Martin of Norman, Randy Terrill of Moore and Paul Wesselhoft of Moore — voted in favor of the bill. Norman Democrats Bill Nations and Wallace Collins voted “no.”

Nations said he hopes the bill will die in the Senate.

“I have hope that it won’t make it through the Senate,” he said. “I don’t know that for sure, but at least I hope it won’t.”
The idea, he said, is being driven “by the excitement of those who are very strongly pro-gun.”

“University presidents are almost unanimously against it,” Nations said. “And at almost all levels, university administrators are against it. Professors on campus are almost 99 percent against it. Municipal law enforcement officials in towns which have a college are against it.”

The bill, he said, is “anti-business.”

“I’ve heard from business people that say it’s embarrassing to the state. We’ve got people trying to put guns on campus, we’ve got hate speech about minorities and have leadership resigning in disgrace. It is embarrassing.”

State Rep. Scott Martin disagreed.

Martin, a former assistant to Norman’s city manager, said the question isn’t what the state Senate is going to do with the bill, but what Gov. Brad Henry will do.

“The bill received fairly overwhelming bipartisan support in the House,” he said. “And the bigger question is what the governor is going to do?”

Martin said the bill “closely defines” what the new exceptions would be for those with a concealed carry permit.

“Just because you’re active duty, a veteran or CLEET certified, you wouldn’t automatically be able to carry a concealed weapon,” he said. “You would still have to have a concealed carry permit and meet those three previous exceptions I’ve mentioned, then you would qualify to have a gun on campus.”

Martin said “not every student who comes along” would qualify for the permit

“The average age is 51,” he said. “For the most part, the vast majority of people who have permits are older folks, not typical college students.”

And those residents who have permits, he said, have “gone through vigorous background checks and training.”

“In the 12 years Oklahoma has allowed the concealed carry permit, we haven’t had one problem. And I wouldn’t anticipate that to happen in the future.”

Still, many university officials oppose the measure.

Last week, University of Oklahoma president David Boren — a former Oklahoma governor — issued a statement scolding lawmakers who supported the bill.

Legislators, Boren said, should “stick to the laws that have worked well in the past” and allow colleges to continue to improve campus safety.

“If it would help for me to get down on my knees to plead with the Legislature for the safety of our students, I would do so,” Boren said.

At Oklahoma State University, officials said allowing students to carry guns on campus was a dangerous idea.

“I think it creates a very unsafe environment,” Lee Bird, Oklahoma State University’s vice president of student affairs, told the OSU Daily O’Collegian. “Realistically that (shootings) is not our most major problem and I don’t think weapons are necessarily going to help us; I think it will endanger people.”

Martin said he, too, was concerned about public safety on state campuses.

“We’re not arming an army,” he said. “We’re trying to provide law-abiding citizens the opportunity to protect themselves. It (the bill) is really a sad commentary on today’s life.”

Nations countered, saying whole issue boils down to a single question.

“Ultimately, the question is this: Do you believe that students, faculty and staff are safer with more guns on campus or with fewer guns on campus?. That’s the question. And when you answer it you know how to vote.”

House Bill 2513 is on second reading in the Oklahoma State Senate.