A bill that would allow some holders of a concealed carry permit to carry their handgun on campus was stalled by a Oklahoma Senate committee. After receiving a 65-36 vote of support in the House of Representatives on March 13, House Bill 2513 failed to get a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee also blocked another House-passed measure which would allow some 18-year-olds to obtain a concealed carry permit. The minimum age is currently 21.
Because of the senate powersharing agreement in which senate Democrats and Republicans share power in the evenly divided chamber, both committee co-chairmen must agree to hear a bill. Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield (D-Ardmore) co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that he and Sen. Mike Johnson (R-Kingfisher), the other committee co-chairman, agreed to not hear the bill. President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan (D-Stillwater) called the idea of allowing students to be armed on campus crazy.
After the bill failed to clear the senate committee, Sen. Anthony Sykes (R-Moore) filed an amendment to House Bill 2606 which was scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor. However, that bill failed to get a vote by the deadline to consider House bills.
Fourteen state college and university presidents came to the Capitol to express concern over the legislation. University of Oklahoma President David Boren said that in his 41 years of public service he had never seen legislation "that would bring with it more unintended consequences that can lead to tragedy."
University of Central Oklahoma President Roger Webb said having guns on campus would increase the odds of an innocent person being harmed. New Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis questioned why military veterans should be allowed to carry guns on campus, pointing out that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was a veteran. Since McVeigh's blowing up the Murrah bombing also violated several state and federal laws, one wonders how laws against having a gun on a college campus would stop a McVeigh.
Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie), the author of HB 2513, said the bill would to allow people to protect themselves from violence on campus. Murphey and other supporters of the measure say the killing sprees on campuses in Virginia and Illinois point to the need for the legislation. They say armed students or faculty members could have reduced the death toll in those incidents, or even prevented the incidents from happening at all. Six were killed by the shooter in the February incident at Northern Illinois University, and 32 in last year's April attack on the Virginia Tech campus.
"Currently, college campuses are a wide open area which a criminal can enter with confidence, knowing that it is most unlikely that their victims will be able to defend themselves," says Murphey. He notes that in many cases those authorized by the bill have training that is equal to or exceeds the training of campus law enforcement officers.
In its original version, anyone with a permit to carry a concealed handgun would have been included. But, before the bill passed the House, it was amended to restrict eligibility to only students and faculty members with certain military or law enforcement training. That would include active military members, those who were honorably discharged from the military, or those who received at least 72 hours of training from the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET).
Murphey notes that over the past 12 years, more than 60,000 Oklahomans have gone through the training and the background examination (including mental health record checks) and received a concealed carry license. He says those Oklahomans have acted responsibly and the program has been a success.
The bill's supporters believe the measure would easily pass if given a vote in the Senate. There may be further attempts to get a vote later in the session.
