Public colleges and universities in Tennesee will allow faculty and staff to carrry guns on campus, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Fulltime employees (which New York Magazine reports is about 27,000 people) must have hand-gun carry permits, the weapons must remain concealed, and they must notify campus police that they will be carrying a gun on campus, Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
However, it sounds like Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam isn’t exactly in favor of mandating the law for all public colleges.
“I am letting SB 2376 become law without my signature,” Haslam said in a letter to Tennessee’s House and Senate speakers, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. “I have long stated a preference for systems and institutions to be able to make their own decisions regarding security issues on campus, and I again expressed this concern throughout the legislative process this year. Although SB 2376 does not go as far as I would like in retaining campus control, the final version of the bill included input from higher education and was shaped to accommodate some of their concerns.”
Unlike some states, which have passed similar legislation, Tennessee’s bill specifically does not allow students to carry guns on campus. Opponents of the bill are worried that the law could complicate how safety procedures are followed, while supporters claim it will add an additional layer of safety for community members.
“If there were an incident or shooting on campus, they would not be able to tell who has a gun legally and who is committing a crime,” Monica Greppin-Watts, the communications director for the Tennessee Board of Regents, told The Tennessean.
The bill was passed in the state senate on April 19 and passed in the house the next day, and will go into affect on July 1, just before the fall semester begins in August, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Tennessee is the latest state to embrace the idea of “campus carry,” following Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin, and Texas, which passed the law in 2015 and will begin allowing guns on public campuses in August 2016.