Missouri state senator Brian Munzlinger (R-18th) wants to open college and university campuses up for concealed carry so that armed citizens “can save lives.”
Munzlinger’s legislation was debated before a senate committee on Wednesday.
According to Fox News, Munzlinger said, “If you look at all of the mass shootings, those individuals have targeted gun free zones.” And he explained that even the time that elapses between a 911 call and the arrival of police is killing time in a gun-free zone. He indicated that “mass shooters can kill many people in the time it takes for police to arrive, arguing that law-abiding citizens with proper training can save lives in that situation.”
The solution—as Munzlinger sees it—is to allow concealed carry permit holders to have their guns with them so they can shoot back and defend their own lives and the lives of their fellow students until police arrive.
Munzlinger’s legislation is similar to the campus carry bill that passed in Kansas, in that it allows colleges and universities to opt out of allowing guns for self-defense if the school meets a predetermined threshold for security. That threshold includes metal detectors, “security personnel,” etc.
The campus carry legislation comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law associate professor Royce Barondes. He has a concealed carry permit and is suing over not being allowed to keep a gun with him on campus for self-defense.
Barondes’s attorneys said, “Common sense tells us that people who commit crimes with guns are not deterred by gun-free zones. In fact, they are attracted to them because they know the law-abiding people there will be unable to defend themselves.”
Breitbart News previously reported that Campus Carry legislation has also been introduced in Georgia and Arizona during this legislative cycle.
Campus carry is the preemptive law of the land in eight states—Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin—and 23 other states allow each college or university to choose to allow campus carry or not. The National Conference of State Legislatures lists those 23 as “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.”
AWR Hawkins is Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.