http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/11/arizona-guns-campus-bill_n_847788.htmlDon't these fucking idiots realize that without proper vetting, theyr'e also giving the crazies permission to carry guns on campus too?
Two days after the Jan. 8 Tucson shootings, as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lay in a medically induced coma, Arizona's House of Representatives introduced the session's very first piece of legislation: a bill allowing college professors to carry concealed weapons on campus.
A similar bill, SB 1467, which would allow anyone to carry a gun on the sidewalks and roads of public universities, sailed through the House last Thursday, despite the fact that the majority of Arizonans oppose sending guns to college.
"The legislature is being very extreme on gun issues, and it couldn't be more opposite to what the public wants," said Hildy Saizow, President of Arizonans for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.
Nearly 70 percent of Arizonans and 56 percent of gun owners did not want to expand gun rights on college campuses, according a February poll by American Viewpoint, a Republican-leaning research company.
On campuses, the opposition is even stronger. More than 80 percent of the state's students and parents opposed the bill in its original form -- which would have allowed guns inside university buildings and dorms -- according to a 1,400-person survey done by Arizona State University Regents' professor Stuart Lindsay. Another round of polls by the Graduate and Professional Student Association at ASU found that two-thirds of graduate students would feel less safe if firearms were allowed anywhere on campus, even within locked cars or in the hands of professors.
"Firearms do not have a place in educational institutions," said Rhian Stotts, an anthropology graduate student at ASU who has been involved with the association that conducted the poll. "The people I interact with are concerned the legislation has gone through."
SB 1467, sponsored by Sen. Ron Gould (R-Lake Havasu City) and passed by a 33-24 margin, prohibits public universities from banning guns on a "public right-of-way." Arizona joins Utah as the second state to force universities to allow guns, although Utah's laws extend into the classrooms and dorms. The term "right-of-way" could be interpreted narrowly, to refer only to major streets running through a campus, or broadly enough to mean all internal university sidewalks and walkways. If Gov. Jan Brewer signs the this bill into law, 18 to 20-year-olds will need a special permit to carry a concealed gun on campus, but those over 21 will not need a permit -- and anyone older than 18 will be able to carry a visible firearm.
