The Georgia General Assembly recently passed what is known as “campus carry” legislation in the form of House Bill 859. This legislation would allow the concealed carry of firearms anywhere on all public technical school, vocational school, college, and university campuses (excluding on campus housing, Greek housing, and athletic events), so long as the owner has the appropriate license and is 21 years of age or older. It is headed to the Georgia Senate and Governor Deal in the upcoming weeks.

We, as Georgia Students, take serious issue with this legislation.

First and foremost, all universities are places of learning. We believe that students have the right to attend class with the peace of mind of knowing that other students are not lethally armed. In order for universities to serve their purpose as havens for research, creativity, and the aggressive exchange of new ideas, guns must not be allowed at Georgia schools. The campus environment that would result from concealed carry would be at the very least distracting, if not entirely disruptive towards the culture of the school.

By allowing students to carry firearms in and out of the classroom, heated debate would not be limited by the boundaries of students’ thought, but would instead be limited by the fear of violent reaction. In an environment where all students are under immense amounts of pressure, the last thing that we want on our minds is worrying about protecting ourselves from armed students and/or strangers. In situations where we feel threatened, we call on our local Police Departments to help. It is law enforcement’s job to protect and serve students – not the students’ job to protect ourselves.

Second, House Bill 859 is an overreach of the power of Georgia’s General Assembly. The universities themselves should take up the actions that universities take to protect their students and ensure safe environments, not the majority party of a state legislature only seeking to advance a political ideology.

Currently, the state of Georgia has given the responsibility of maintaining safe student environments to Georgia’s Board of Regents and the individual universities, allowing these public universities to decide for themselves the best methods and policies for fostering security according to their individual needs and observations. House Bill 859 effectively disallows Georgia public colleges from implementing the safety policies that they have already crafted, ignores the very real possibility of increased gun violence, and rejects the fact that nearly 80% of Georgia citizens oppose this proposed policy.

Not only has there been widespread opposition from the student community and campus administration, but House Bill 859 represents an unequivocal overstepping of bounds by the state government for the sake of ideology, and even worse, a situation that creates serious threats to student safety at Georgia colleges.

Join us in opposition to HB 859.