On October 12 Wisconsin state representative Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) and state senator Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) put forth a bill that would expand campus carry to buildings and classrooms on college campuses.
The move comes after a gunman at was able to enter classrooms without facing armed resistance at Umpqua Community College (UCC) on October 1.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, campus carry is already legal on the grounds of public colleges and universities in Wisconsin, but an exemption to the carry law allows those same schools to ban campus carry inside campus buildings. Some schools, such as UW-Madison, have seized on this exemption to demand that law-abiding students disarm themselves before entering a building for class.
Kremer and LeMahieu want this exemption removed.
Kremer said the exemption allows schools to prevent campus carry by making the practice too burdensome. As a result, “students and others go unarmed while they’re on campuses and on their way to the institutions because they know they can’t enter buildings with their weapons or safely store them outside.” He laments that this takes a away a strong “deterrent” to the kind of attack witnessed at UCC in Oregon.
Kremer and LeMahieu co-authored a statement in which they indicated that campuses where students are rendered defenseless are prime targets for a cowardly gunman. They said, “The unfortunate reality is that campus gun-free zones merely serve to concentrate populations of vulnerable targets on campus and surrounding areas.”
The GOP lawmakers are presently circulating their bill among colleagues, looking for additional sponsors to move the legislation forward and eventually to the desk of Governor Scott Walker (R).
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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