The Senate this morning added an amendment to Rep. Charlie Collins‘ campus carry bill that incorporates the effort denied in committee yesterday to require a 16-hour additional training period before university staff members with concealed carry permits may take the weapons on campus.
Here’s the amendment, backed by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson. It adds some provisos about where guns may not be taken, including disciplinary and personnel evaluation meetings, “special events” as designated by a vote of a governing board and campus housing.
The amendment also requires a staff member to notify law enforcement of intention to carry, though these notices will be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
The amendments provide that a staff member with a gun assumes all liability for use, not the college.
The State Police is required to come up with a training program, described as including:
(A) Legal limitations on the use of firearms;
(B) Fundamental use of firearms, including firearm safety
drills, tactics, and required qualification on an approved course of fire;
(C) Active shooter training;
(D) Active shooter simulation scenarios;
(E) Trauma care;
(F) Defensive tactics;
(G) Weapon retention; and
(H) Handgun safety and maintenance.(2) A training program administered under this subsection shall
consist of at least sixteen (16) hours.(3) A training program under this subsection shall have
comparable standards to an active shooter or related training program administered by the commission.
Collins successfully opposed amendments before the Senate committee approved the bill yesterday, but there’s apparently sufficient resistance in the full Senate for Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who’d argued for a training requirement, to get another run at it. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he favored the situation as it now exists, guns allowed only by vote of campus governing boards, which none has done.
UPDATE: Sponsor Collins’ response to my question of whether he was OK with the amendment:
No I am not okay. I drafted an amendment in partnership with Senator Hutchinson yesterday and he chose to ditch that one and run this one instead. It is a bad amendment. The one we did together was an excellent training amendment. I am not opposed to using training, but in order to maintain a deterrent must then drop the employee only restriction. Hutchinson amendment adds unlimited training and further restricts who can carry along with other things.