A bill introduced in the state Senate last week could give some university and community college professors the right to carry concealed firearms on campus.
The bill’s main sponsor, State Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, said the legislation is part of a larger goal to eliminate “defense-free zones,” or areas where firearms are restricted, and to provide extra protection in the event of a school shooting.
Under Arizona law, only police officers are allowed to carry firearms on school grounds, an area Harper calls a “defense-free zone.”
“The Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms,” he said. “We’re restoring a right people once had.”
Harper is already known for advocating for gun rights legislation. He sponsored another bill that was signed into law last July allowing permit holders to carry concealed handguns into establishments that sell alcohol.
“Over the years, more restrictions have been put on the [right to bear arms],” Harper said. “People once had a right to carry a concealed weapon without a [concealed weapon permit] too.”
In Arizona, all concealed weapon permit holders are at least 21 and have completed at least eight hours of firearm safety training.
The idea for the new gun bill was presented to Sen. Harper by a university professor whom Harper would not name. The bill allows faculty members with concealed-carry permits to carry concealed firearms while on campus, which Harper believes will make a difference in the case of a campus shooting.
State Sen. Meg Burton Cahill, D-Tempe, said she disagreed with Harper’s reasoning.
“I don’t think that [providing security] is [a professor’s] job,” Cahill said. “They’re not hired to be professors-slash-security. I doubt I will support this piece of legislation.”
But Harper said events like a 2002 shooting at UA could have ended differently had faculty members been professors were shot and killed by an agitated student before the gunman took his own life.
Harper pointed to Israel as an example for why this legislation is a good idea.
The Middle Eastern country, known for frequent terrorist attacks, allows its teachers to carry firearms for protection. Israel’s gun restrictions became more relaxed after the Ma’alot massacre, a 1974 school shooting that left 22 students dead.
ASU law professor Michael Berch said even with training and testing, most faculty members are not qualified to handle firearms.
“There would be more accidents than there would be benefits with guns on the campus,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Berch said he would not want to be next to a colleague carrying a gun.
“There are some people [at ASU] who can’t even drive a car,” he said jokingly, “and you’re going to give them a gun?”
Political science professor David Wells agreed that guns do not belong within educational institutions.
“We don’t have a tremendous amount of campus crime that call for [firearms],” Wells said. “I think it’s a horrible idea.”
ASU Young Democrats President Erica Pederson said lawmakers can battle school shootings another way.
In order to prevent tragedies like Virginia Tech, a shooting that killed 32 college students in 2007, legislators should not be weakening restrictions on gun possession but tightening them, Pederson said in an e-mail.
“If the laws could be strengthened to make sure that mistakes like these can be avoided and that guns do not end up in dangerous hands, then I would definitely feel even more safe on my campus and in my community,” she said.
The political science and philosophy junior said ASU is already a safe campus.
“This legislation is only about generating fear in the public’s mind by making us feel that we are unsafe in our own classrooms,” she said. “It is purely political and entirely unnecessary.”
However, psychology junior Joey Hammerle said he would still feel safe in the classroom even if the professor were carrying a firearm.
“It’s not something I would think about,” Hammerle said.
ASU officials would not comment on the bill, as it is against University policy to discuss pending legislation.
Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu
