Gun bill targets colleges
A bill being considered in the House of Delegates challenges the authority of public universities to restrict weapons on campus.
By Greg Esposito 381-1675
BLACKSBURG -- Seventy-five guns sit in a weapons storage facility at the Virginia Tech police station.
The guns are secured inside storage compartments in a locked room slightly larger than a walk-in closet.
University policy requires students and employees, other than police, to check their guns there. If they want to take them off campus, they have to sign them out, and a university police officer must retrieve them.
Regardless of whatever permits they may have, those students and employees are not allowed to possess guns on campus.
Tech's regulations are similar to gun policies at public colleges throughout the state, such as the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute and Radford University.
But a bill being considered in the state House of Delegates challenges the authority of public universities to create such policies.
House Bill 1572, proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, would prohibit universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."
The legislation makes exceptions for participants in athletic events, storage of guns in residence halls and military training programs.
The issue of guns on campus received attention at Tech last spring when a student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit.
Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.
In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy that reiterates the ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibits visitors from bringing guns into campus facilities.
Two bills seeking to clarify the issue by giving college governing boards explicit authority to regulate firearms on campus died in committee during last year's General Assembly session.
Philip Van Cleave, a Midlothian resident who is president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said Wednesday that public universities have no right to tell visitors where they can bring guns. Their authority over students remains a gray area, he said.
HB 1572 was proposed on behalf of Van Cleave's organization.
"The basic intent is to allow students with concealed weapons permits to be able to carry their gun with them on campus just like they can anywhere else in the state," he said. "You can count the number of exceptions on one hand."
But Tech Police Chief Debra Duncan said colleges should be included in those exceptions.
"You can't carry a gun on an airplane, you can't carry a gun in a federal building and you shouldn't be able to carry a gun at an institute of learning," she said.
Spokesman Gary Frink said Gilbert wouldn't discuss the bill until it moved further along in the legislative process. The bill is in subcommittee and Van Cleave said he didn't expect it to be heard for at least a couple of weeks.
While passage of the bill is still a long way off -- with hurdles to clear in subcommittee and full committee before going in front of all delegates and then the Senate -- Van Cleave is confident it could be passed.
"I don't believe we're overstepping any bounds. We get into this magical thing where someone steps on school property and the sky parts," he said. "School is just another place."
But officials at colleges throughout the state argue that school isn't just another place and guns are anathema to a learning environment that should be free of fear or intimidation.
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker labeled it a "guns-in-the-classroom bill."
"We do believe this has grave implications," he said. "Why would the General Assembly wish to legislate to make campuses unsafe?"
But National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre, who was in Roanoke on Wednesday to speak to a Kiwanis Club gathering, pointed out that guns can actually make campuses safer.
He cited the fatal shootings at the Appalachian School of Law in which several armed students subdued the gunman.
Van Cleave pointed out potential safety problems facing women going to night classes.
"You never know when evil will pop up," he said.
Van Cleave said his group has heard from several students who want the right to carry guns on campus.
Stephanie Harmon, president of the Radford University Student Government Association, said she would bring the topic up at a student senate meeting Monday before the student government took an official stance on the bill.
But she opposes it.
"It's not that I'm opposed to gun rights, it's just not necessary," she said. "It's taking an increased risk of something happening when you allow a gun in the classroom."
Staff writer Laurence Hammack contributed to this story.
