By Sara Tipton
Should Florida’s HB 4005 become law, college students in the state of Florida will have the option to carry guns on college campuses. Sponsored by Representative Greg Steube, a republican out of Sarasota, HB 4005 gives college students over the age of 21 who have a concealed carry permit, the right to carry. Even in class. Many student groups objected to the measure, yet it passed a House panel Wednesday anyway . . .
As Rep. Stuebe told orlandosentinel.com,
“I would rather trust myself in a situation like that than wait on law enforcement to get there.”
Still, students and faculty from Florida State University claim guns on their campus will make for an unsafe and unstable learning environment.
“Faculty must feel confident they can challenge students intellectually and discuss controversial topics without the fear of an offended student brandishing a weapon in the classroom,” said Jennifer Proffitt, president of FSU’s United Faculty of Florida chapter.
Other students spoke in favor of HB 4005 saying that the right to bear arms shouldn’t be eliminated when crossing the campus property lines.
The National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist in Florida, Marion Hammer, said “The plain truth is campuses are not safe.” The bill will ensure female students can protect themselves against violent assaults or rapes.
Guns are allowed on campuses in nine other states and there have been no surges in criminal activity or injuries involving guns in any of them. For that reason, Representative Rene Plascencia, a Republican from Orlando, voted in favor of the bill. “It’s a perceived sense of not being safe, but it’s not what is actually happening,” Plascencia said. His district includes the University of Central Florida.
When a sorority/female student cramming for midterms gets accosted late at night on campus by a BG, heaven forbid she might have something to defend herself with. Anyone remember Ted Bundy? Central Florida Campus killer? Buehlerr????
The golf cart and hybrid driving unarmed campus security will be there in minutes, after the act, to call 911 and an ambulance so they can get her to the ER for a rape kit examination, with the morning after pill.
God Forbid she has a .38 snub, or .380, pocket 9mm variant with Remington Golden Sabre’s and a chance to get trained and use it to defend herself if she has to.
The halls of academia and faculty lounges are scared. The Unicorns and fluffy clouds have sensed a disruption in the Force.
Good.
Madness!! Sir, Madness!!!. Federal HST or Speer Gold Dots. Jeesh, some people….. : )
Or .380 leghih extreme penetrators.
Seriously, I carry Hornady American Gunner 124gr +P in my 3.2″ 9mm. Federal HST 124gr in my Sig P320(nightstand), and Hornady Critical Duty in my CZ P07(weekend carry).
I wouldn’t recommend a Remington product built in the post Freedom Group era.
Ranger -T?
Marion Hammer has more testicular fortitude than many in the State. She did forge the CCW permitting in FL back in the late 80’s, although it cost what once was an open carry provision to appease the hopolophobes. I hope we get OC back, in time it might be so. Texas may lead the way on that here directly.
There will be the low information students, of course, that think this is just “gun nuts” wanting crazy things, but I can assure you a large portion of students are for it. They pay attention, stay up on current events,
and aren’t stupid. Despite the media narrative. Especially Northern Florida.
it cost what once was an open carry provision to appease the hopolophobes
Actually, it cost open carry to appease Janet Reno, murderer of children.
That is unfair. Janet Reno killed men, women, and children without any discrimination, and remains completely unpunished.
There was some political and religious discrimination from her, in fact maybe to the extreme.
Don’t forget Danny Rolling, the serial killer of Gainesville FL. If one of those UF students had a gun, it might have made a difference.
Don’t forget old Ted Bundy who went on sprees on several campuses.
I hope this passes. I wanted to take some courses at night in the fall and would feel better carrying something other than a 2.0 ounce can of Fox Labs 5.3.
Students 21 and older, graduate students, faculty and staff would be able to carry, not just students.
“Faculty must feel confident they can challenge students intellectually and discuss controversial topics without the fear of an offended student brandishing a weapon in the classroom,” said Jennifer Proffitt, president of FSU’s United Faculty of Florida chapter.
Project much?
These contrived hypothetical scenarios used as the basis for objection are truly laughable.
Yeah… licensed concealed carriers are notorious for “brandishing” any time they are “offended.”
Yeah. I dare say a student unstable enough to draw on his professor likely wouldn’t give 2 flips about whether it was illegal to have the gun in the first place.
And the result would be loss of firearm rights, fine and possible jail time, it would not become the newest campus fad. Come to think about it, I suspect expulsion would be likely as well.
The idea that campus carry and genuine intellectual discussion and debate are mutually exclusive is a false premise that should be tossed out the moment some moron utters it.
I heard this argument all the time when I went to University. It was ludicrous for two reasons.:
1) Everybody carried pocket knives with them wherever they went, and yet, no knife fights in the streets, no police reports of teachers being stabbed to death by students, nothing.
2) Telling a 7 foot tall man that you can’t have an argument with an armed person because you would be too afraid of retaliation is the ultimate double-think. You would be afraid of a 5 foot tall girl with an unseen handgun in her purse, but a heated argument with a man many times your size doesn’t raise hairs on the back of your neck? Really?
What about the nevada campus carry bill
Neocon Senate will probably molest the bill.
When I took the campus tour at my current University one of the things they talked about with great pride was their university police callboxes. Get to one of these callboxes and a campus police officer would be there in 90 seconds they claimed. Given the size of the campus that’s not too bad but there’s one major problem. If someone is trying to harm me in the here and now an officer 90 seconds away is as good as an officer not showing up at all. This is of course assuming you can even get to one of the callboxes.
One of the things that gets me the most about the whole guns on campus debate is the anti argument of ” if we allow guns on campus then we won’t know who to trust or who we can discuss with” (said by a classmate in an upper level Political Science class). The absolute failure of logic in that almost made me cry. There’s no metal detectors on the entrances to buildings, we aren’t strip searched, nor are we subject to any form of contraband checks. What makes you so sure the less law abiding among us aren’t already carrying a weapon. Unless you’re a hermit that never leaves campus you move among people that may or may not be carrying yet you aren’t rallying to keep them from carrying off campus. Chances are you interact with people carrying off campus routinely and never realize it because the weapon is concealed.
Note that Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda (D) testified in favor of the Bill and is on the committee that is next scheduled to review. She carried in college and it helped prevent her from being raped. Kudos for truth in local politics…..
“She [Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda] carried in college and it helped prevent her from being raped.”
This story mentions the event. It would have been vastly more compelling had she actually used her handgun on campus rather than at her off-campus apartment.
Something tells me that it may have actually occurred on campus and she doesn’t want to admit that — because she would have been carrying against Florida law at that point.
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/rep-michelle-rehwinkel-vasilinda-tells-story-of-using-her-gun-to-prevent/2221831
“Faculty must feel confident they can challenge students intellectually and discuss controversial topics without the fear of an offended student brandishing a weapon in the classroom,”
And students must feel confident they can express their thoughts and opinions, and disagree with their teachers as part of the learning process, without fear an offended professor will penalize them academically for having a differing opinion.
For some strange reason, the only classes I ever took that engendered that fear, graduate as well as undergraduate level, were the non-hard-science classes. Political science, in particular, was renowned as being an “echo or else” chamber.
Yeah, my father taught PolySci at an Orlando college, and was quite proud that all his students ended up “agreeing” with his extremist views on essentially everything, which were in themselves fascinating given that he was a retired Navy officer who saw action in the Pacific in WWII, and again in Korea, after graduating from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Anti-gun, anti-government, anti-U.S., anti-free market, I am so sure those students actually agreed with him on everything.
There are some professors that do not agree with the opposition to these bills. There is one in this interview in the FAMU paper The Famuan interviewed by the editor in chief. Plus there is Dr. Gary Kleck at FSU.
http://www.thefamuanonline.com/news/view.php/861226/Senate-Committee-Passes-Concealed-Weapon
How many times do I have to repeat myself ?
IF IT’S CONCEALED, HOW WILL THEY KNOW ?
This has been my mantra for years here in Fla. Also, better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6. (but we all knew that already)
Because of the fact that with a ccw license it is a misdemeanor and without one a felony. That is why these bills are important.
Too bad the bill is getting killed in a Senate Committee by just not calling for a debate and vote.
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