Some ASU students call for open carry of guns on campus
All surrounding Arizona State University, people can legally carry a gun. But step one foot onto campus, and it’s no longer allowed.
Some students want to change that, and they say their constitutional rights are violated if they’re not able to carry weapons.
A new student club, Young Americans for Liberty at ASU, is pushing for a new school policy and change to state law. Leaders of ASU College Republicans and College Republicans United also support what’s known as “campus carry.”
“Because they are a public university, I believe students should absolutely have the right to bear arms on campus,” said Ryne Bolick, president of ASU’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter.
Guns on university campuses are an issue of longstanding debate. Proponents argue it would reduce campus shootings and help students defend themselves, if necessary. But some research has found that bringing guns on campus may lead to more shootings, violent or accidental, and that the college environment is not suited for weapons.
The debate is not new in Arizona. After campus shootings in other states, some Arizona lawmakers pushed to allow guns at universities here. One bill made it through the Legislature and to the governor’s desk 10 years ago but was vetoed. A few bills have been introduced since but haven’t advanced.
ASU students who support a change plan to promote the issue both on campus and next year at the state Capitol. Bolick’s club is collecting signatures on an online petition and working to raise awareness of the issue among ASU students.
“There’s a lot of momentum for students to get involved, and each and ev
ery (club) member is excited about this initiative,” said Joe Pitts, president of ASU College Republicans, which is supporting the effort.
But for now, guns are prohibited at all three state universities by school policy and by the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body for the schools. Firearms are allowed in locked cars as long as they’re not visible from the outside, and law enforcement officers can carry guns on campus.
The locked-car policy has not prevented tragedy, though.
In October 2015, Northern Arizona University students got in an altercation that started just off campus, moved onto campus and turned deadly. One student went to his car, grabbed a gun, and in what he said was self-defense, fired shots. One student died and three were wounded in the chaotic melee, and the student who fired the gun was sentenced to prison for manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The Board of Regents has previously discussed the issue of campus carry at length, has passed a unanimous resolution opposing guns on campus and has “repeatedly reaffirmed” that position, spokesperson Sarah Harper wrote in an email.
“The university campus is a unique environment and the board believes the restriction of firearms coupled with allowed self-defense items creates the safest possible campus community,” Harper wrote.
Students who support a change present two main arguments: It’s a constitutional right, and it’s important for campus safety and women’s self-defense.
Gun rules at public universities should match state law, Bolick said, which allows for open carry for those over 18 and concealed carry without a permit for those over 21. As it stands, students are “greatly hindered” in exercising their Second Amendment rights, he said.
Bolick, who is the son of Secretary of State candidate and state Rep. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, and Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, is leading the effort on campus. The sophomore’s “No. 1 goal” is to get a campus carry policy in place before he graduates.
He said he’s heard support from female students who are worried about sexual assault on campus and want to carry a gun when walking in the dark after late classes or meetings.
Pitts of the College Republicans said that’s the primary reason to allow guns on campus.
“Obviously the constitutional rights side gets people fired up and excited and wanting to put this in place because it does seem arbitrary” where guns are and aren’t allowed, he said.
“But I do think the main draw and the main push is this idea of self-defense … . There is that legitimate concern after dark on campus, no matter how many safety escorts we have, no matter how many ASU PD we have on campus.”
Harper at the Board of Regents said campus police and community law enforcement are “well-equipped and highly-trained professionals and are best prepared to ensure the safety of our university communities.”
Although guns are banned, board and ASU policies allow students to carry or use for self-defense “personal safety devices” including pepper spray, alarms, some electroshock devices and knives.
An ASU spokesperson declined to comment on the campus carry effort, deferring to the response provided by the Board of Regents.
Bolick’s group is circulating a petition among students and the general public that they hope will pressure university officials and the Regents to change their policies. The petition claims the board has “stripped its students of their inalienable right to self defense.”
Bolick said change from the university is unlikely, so the most plausible way to get guns on campus is through the Legislature, and lawmakers could soon have a timely opening for lawmakers to reconsider the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case about New York gun licensing laws that could expand Second Amendment rights and protections for carrying guns in public, beyond the court’s previous decisions about the rights to have guns in homes.
A gun policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy expects that decision could have implications on the public carry and use of guns, which may shape conversations on campus carry.
State lawmakers have several times tried — and failed — to allow guns on Arizona’s university and community college campuses.
Students think they may have a window by starting discussions now and advocating for the inclusion of campus carry in the Republican-majority agenda when the legislative session starts in January, Pitts said.
An early push at the state Capitol came in 2008, the year after the Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 people dead and 17 wounded and became the deadliest school shooting in the nation. The event sparked national debates on gun violence and campus safety, including support for campus carry.
Arizona lawmakers at the time discussed a bill that would allow those 21 and older with concealed carry permits to have guns at public colleges and universities, with the argument they could help limit violent crime or shootings on campus. The bill did not make it through.
When a bill that would have allowed concealed carry on university and community college campuses did land on the governor’s desk in 2011, former Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it, saying it was poorly written and had confusing wording.
Brewer previously had signed bills to permit people to carry concealed weapons without a permit and to allow guns in bars and in restaurants that serve alcohol.
Before the campus carry bill made it to Brewer, the three university presidents, faculty organizations and campus police chiefs came out in opposition to guns on campus because of the potential for dangerous situations. It’s likely that opposition would remain if a bill surfaces at the Legislature.
Campus carry came up in 2012 but didn’t advance.
And the push was renewed again in early 2016, three months after the shooting on the NAU campus.
Rep. Sonny Borrelli, R-Bullhead City, introduced a bill then to allow students and faculty at public universities and colleges to carry concealed weapons on campus after getting carry permits from the Department of Public Safety. He said at the time people should be able to defend themselves if needed. The bill didn’t pass.
Nationally, it’s still pretty unusual to see students or faculty toting guns on campus.
The most common way states deal with campus carry is to let universities decide, which is Arizona’s policy.
Some states also have blanket bans on guns on college campuses altogether, and others explicitly say guns are legal on campuses, said Alex McCourt, director of legal research for the Johns Hopkins center.
There are not a lot of studies on campus carry specifically, McCourt said, but there is a growing body of research on the effects of carrying guns in public places more generally as gun laws have relaxed in recent decades.
“What the best research has consistently found is that these laws are associated with increases in violent crime. So as we make it easier to carry handguns in public, we see increases in violence,” he said. “It’s very difficult to determine the mechanism there, but it’s likely just the presence of guns in more scenarios.”
A handful of states allow people to carry guns on campus, but often with stipulations that they are concealed or that owners have a permit. Texas lawmakers in 2015 passed a campus carry law, but only for people with concealed handgun licenses, according to the Texas Tribune, which cited University of Texas at Austin officials’ estimate at the time that fewer than 1% of students had a license.
The Texas law coincidentally took effect on campuses on the 50th anniversary of the University of Texas Tower shooting in 1966, one of the first mass shootings, when a student fired from the iconic campus tower before students and others grabbed their own rifles and helped police fire back. More than a dozen people were killed, and dozens more were injured.
In Arizona, individuals 18 and older can purchase and carry guns, so depending on how a campus carry law is written, many students may be eligible to carry.
ASU student Jacob Sumner, president of March For Our Lives at ASU, a youth-led gun violence prevention organization, said he doesn’t think guns belong on any school campus.
“I don’t believe that more guns makes our country safer,” he said.
“College students, they’re under a lot of stress. I’d be concerned about an increase in suicides through firearms. There’s already a lot of sexual assaults on campus — I’d be worried about an increase in that because we have stats that show that access to a gun makes sexual assault more deadly.”
McCourt said a big concern about campus carry is the unique nature of college environments. He said while people push for guns on campus to be able to defend against mass shootings, those events are rare.
The bigger concern on college campuses relates to acts of aggression, interpersonal conflicts and suicide or selfharm attempts, he said.
“If a gun is present when somebody has a conflict or especially when they’re having thoughts of self-harm, that instance is much more likely to be lethal,” he said.