A committee of the Arizona Legislature is weighing arguments made Feb. 18 over a proposal to let concealed-weapons permit-holders bring guns to K-12 schools, community colleges and universities.
The Senate’s Judiciary Committee listened to more than two hours of testimony about the proposal, but didn’t take a vote. The testimony came four days after a gunman opened fire during a lecture at Northern Illinois University, killing five young people before turning a gun on himself.
Supporters said people with permits to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to carry guns at schools so they can defend themselves and others if a gunman starts shooting people and police haven’t yet arrived at the scene.
Republican state Sen. Karen Johnson of Mesa, author of the proposal, said teachers and college students have contacted her to voice support for the bill because they don’t want to be left unprotected.
“The police can’t always be there. Unfortunately, when you have an incident on a campus, it’s always after the fact that the police get there,” Johnson said, pointing out that it took police 90 seconds to respond to the scene in Illinois.
Opponents said police officers urgently responding to a school shooting might have difficulty distinguishing innocent permit-holders from the gunman.
“If we are delayed in our rapid deployment, I fear that additional lives will be lost because we will have to take the time to identify each and every gun that we encounter while we attempt to locate the source of the shots,” said Greg Fowler, police chief at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and an opponent of the bill.
Thirteen states have considered similar proposals this year that would open the door for some gun owners to bring weapons to schools. Three dozen states prohibit people from carrying at schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Arizona law now forbids people from carrying weapons on school grounds, except unloaded firearms kept in vehicles controlled by adults, guns not visible from outside locked cars and guns used in school-approved programs.
Under Arizona law, weapons are allowed at schools for hunter- and firearms-safety courses, and police officers are already exempt from the prohibition against carrying guns at schools.
Anthony Daykin, police chief at the University of Arizona, where a nursing student fatally shot three professors and killed himself in 2002, said the proposal could cause confusion because permit-holders might mistake other law-abiding gun-carriers for an accomplice in a school shooting.
“What kind of carnage might we have while some of them deal with the initial threat and then others deal with the secondary threat that they believe exists?” Daykin asked.
Supporters cited a 1997 school shooting in Pearl, Miss., where a teacher retrieved a gun from his car when a student opened fire, then held the student at bay until police arrived.
Rick Dalton, a school teacher and retired Mesa police officer, said horrific school shootings can be prevented by permit-holders.
“Guns in the hands of bad people do bad things,” said Dalton, a supporter of the bill. “But guns in the hands of good people do good things.” ?