New campus gun law presents risks to students
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Sometime in early 2018 a few handgun carriers will be able to carry their hidden weapons almost anywhere on the campuses of Arkansas’ state-supported colleges and universities, including classrooms and dormitories.
First they must complete eight hours of special training designed by the Arkansas State Police and taught by certified firearms instructors, including two hours of range qualification. They will have to pass a test to receive a so-called enhanced carry permit.
Hopefully, the training will be enough to keep them from getting between law enforcement officers and a bad guy carrying a gun. How the various parties will be able to tell the difference is unclear.
Act 562 became law Sept. 1, but ASP is still working on the training module. A public comment period on the proposed rules ended Nov. 10, and some firearms instructors expressed concerns especially about how to address the place of a licensee in an active shooter situation.
Generally, law enforcement officers are trained to shoot anybody with a gun in such situations. That won’t work quite so well if you have a few “good guys” getting involved.
Consider the Dec. 10, 2015, incident on the Arkansas State University campus. A Jonesboro man, later convicted of terroristic threatening, drove his truck onto the lawn near the Student Union, brandishing a shotgun that he pointed at a propane tank.
Responding law enforcement officers were advised there were also several men dressed in black ninja costumes with guns near the building. It turned out that these were students filming a movie trailer, and they had no weapons, real or fake. They had no part in the terroristic threatening incident, but imagine what might have happened.
Even worse, what might happen if couple of concealed-carry permit holders confront such a suspect? Who starts shooting first?
We can thank Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, most of his legislative colleagues and Gov. Asa Hutchinson for bringing us the travesty and potential tragedy of Act 562. Collins sponsored the bill after previous legislation failed to convince higher education leaders that it was a good idea to allow guns on campus in the hands of people other than law enforcement officers.
Instead, lawmakers substituted their judgment for that of higher education administrators and board members, and the governor, who had argued against it, signed it. Collins’ bill passed the House of Representatives 71-18, with nine not voting and two voting present. Earlier it passed had passed the Senate 18-9 with three voting present and four not voting.
[All four Jonesboro representatives — Dwight Tosh, Jack Ladyman, Brandt Smith and Dan Sullivan — voted for the bill. Sen. John Cooper, who said he opposed it, did not vote.]
A related law, Act 859 of 2017, restricts carrying concealed weapons at private colleges, teaching hospitals, collegiate athletic events, day-care facilities, bars or churches that choose not to allow them. However, the burden is on those who run such events and facilities to provide specific notices to that effect.
That leaves an awful lot of campus property that will be open for people who qualify to carry handguns, and administrators are limited in minimizing the risk.
Brad Phelps, Arkansas State University’s chief counsel, said the Jonesboro campus has eight exempt spots under a private club clause in Act 562. That covers most athletic facilities, the Fowler Center and the Cooper Alumni Center. The NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, housed in Wilson Hall, is also exempt.
Further, a licensee may not store a handgun in a residence hall or in a locked office or desk drawer. Handguns can be stored in a locked and unattended vehicle on campus.
Now here is the most foolhardy implication of Act 562: Licensees will be able to carry their handguns into a party at an on-campus fraternity or sorority house. While the new laws make exceptions to protect the adults allowed to drink legally in private clubs on campus, they do not protect students attending on-campus events where drinking is allowed for those of age.
I’m interested in this situation as a volunteer alumni adviser to an ASU fraternity, and several of us met recently with the university counsel to discuss what, if anything, we can do.
Our fraternity’s national and local bylaws prohibit weapons of any kind in the fraternity house, which is owned by a private, nonprofit corporation. But Collins and Co. superceded those common-sense rules, too, with Act 562 because the house corporation leases the land on which the house is located from the university.
ASU’s student conduct rules allow alcoholic beverages to be consumed by adult students in the fraternity houses during registered social events. The Greek organizations usually hire off-duty law enforcement officers to provide security, and they must abide by a long list of rules, including who may attend.
But the new law does not allow a fraternity to screen out people carrying guns. Monitors can’t even ask whether an invited guest is carrying. The names of concealed carry permit holders are secret, thanks to another legislative edict, and they need only to show their enhanced license to a certified law enforcement officer.
Of course, many students who attend such functions are not old enough to drink, and most concealed carry permit holders are at least 21. But an organization will find it difficult to screen out people who are just carrying.
Young men, alcohol and guns: What could possibly go wrong?
Roy Ockert, a resident of Jonesboro, is a retired editor of The Jonesboro Sun. He can be reached at royo@suddenlink.net. ASU has a question-and-answer page on this issue at http://www.asusystem.edu/about/policies/weapons.