Arkansas Carry

Introduced 1/17:

www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/201...spx?measureno=HB1035

I sometimes have trouble fully understanding all the nuances of these amendments. Would the public college or university still be able to prevent weapons by internal policy?

Yes, church or university discretion.

The bill about churches is very clear, but I'm less sure about how this one would work. I can see two things that might still make it unwise to carry as an employee of a public university. (If you're not a full-time employee, you can't anyway. No students (even if they are also employees, if they are full-time students), no part-time or contract workers, general public, etc. as I read it.)

1) I'm not sure that they can't just put up signs and disallow guns by being posted, just like any other place. Since colleges/universities are specifically allowed, though, I believe that may well take precedence over the less specific "anyplace there is a sign" ban. An actual lawyer would probably know better how to parse that...

2) The law draws a distinction between public and private colleges, saying private schools have discretion to ban guns and omitting that from the public school verbiage. Therefore, I'm pretty sure public colleges cannot make it illegal to carry on-campus. BUT just because it's not illegal does that mean a college can't have a policy against it? I tend to think not. So even if you're not breaking the law, they are probably still able to fire you. Again, an actual lawyer would come in handy here. :)

www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/2013R/Bills/HB1035.pdf

I'm not really liking the way this one is written... it clearly gives college staff and faculty the ability to carry unless the school prohibits it (which they all will), but it also expands the prohibited places to include grounds around the college:

(4) "Higher education campus" means the grounds and buildings owned or 8 leased by a university, college, or community college;

Currently we're only restricted from campus buildings:

(14) Any kingergarten through grade twelve (K-12) school, college, community college, or university campus building, or event, unless for the purpose of participating in an authorized firearms-related activity;

I think Rep Altes needs to work on his wording before this goes any further. Taking out the "grounds and" from (4) would be a good start...not restricting this to faculty and staff would be even better.

Joes wrote:
Quite right to be concerned. We've been trying to work with Denny on a few tweaks to some of the bills but he's been rather hard to get reach as of late. If changes are not made we will not support this bill... as of now it's unlikely it would receive any support in committee.