FL. LAWMAKERS OKAY CONDITIONAL CAMPUS CARRY; CCRKBA ‘THUMBS UP’
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is giving the Florida Legislature a “thumbs up” for passing legislation to allow college and university professors and staff who volunteer to carry concealed sidearms on campus, calling it a move that will make campuses safer.
The Florida Senate passed HB 757 26-10 and the House approved the measure 88-20. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb called the legislation a “much needed step toward improving campus security.”
“This legislation expands the state’s Guardian Program to colleges and universities,” Gottlieb said, “and that’s a good thing. We’ve tried so-called ‘gun-free zone’ campuses and it’s been a failure, as last year’s shooting spree at Florida State University clearly demonstrated. It’s time to think out of that restrictive box and try a different approach, which is to allow volunteers to train and fight back.
“For years,” Gottlieb observed, “we’ve watched the hand-wringing and head-shaking over attacks on college campuses, with the typical reaction from the gun prohibition lobby and anti-gun lawmakers to call for more restrictions on private gun ownership. All that accomplished was to fool the public into believing some action had been taken while the body counts climbed.
“It is clearly time for a more aggressive strategy,” he continued, “which will enable trained faculty and staff—who are strictly volunteers—to provide another layer of security and safety. We’re tired of hearing from anti-gun academics who say guns should be kept off campus. Well, their arguments haven’t worked because criminals and crazy people don’t pay any attention to their gun-free utopian nonsense.
“So let’s change course and give people at colleges and universities not just a fighting chance, but training and skills to intervene and stop tragedies,” Gottlieb said. “We can no longer afford to entertain the anti-gun sympathies of head-in-the-sand ivory tower ideologues who are so afraid of firearms they’re willing to allow fellow staff and students to become victims in order to maintain their lofty notions of being above the fray. Colleges and universities are not immune from violent crime. Florida lawmakers recognize that, while the gun-free zone zealots don’t.”
