Concealed Carry for Ohio Campuses Still Unresolved

 

Video by Lexi Walters

 

As gun rights become less strict in Ohio, one sensitive area for concealed carry for handguns has yet to be permanently addressed: university campuses. However, with no impending legislation to address the issue, change in universities policies are unlikely to occur anytime soon.

House Bill 48 was passed this last November which has loosened the restrictions on concealed carry and allows individuals to carry handguns in daycares and certain public areas in airports and police stations.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Ron Maag, was referred to the Government Oversight and Reform Senate Committee, led by Senator Bill Coley.

The concerns over students and faculty being able to conduct concealed carry on campus comes after Texas legislation passed a bill allowing concealed carry on campus. Texas now joins seven other states where concealed carry on campus is permitted, alongside Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Wisconsin and Mississippi, according to The National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the state has allowed concealed carry on campus, it marks the first time that legislation has passed to allow concealed carry inside university buildings. According to armedcampuses.org, the new Texas law, will go into effect on August 1, 2016, but each university will still have power to ban weapons from “sensitive areas and buildings.”

Texas Christian University (TCU) passed resolutions in attempt to keep concealed weapons from entering university buildings and offices, while Texas A&M has implemented a task force to aide in their decision.

Kent State’s policy, along with other major universities in Ohio, has issued a strict ban on concealed carry on campus. 18 other states have done the same, with the remaining states allowing campuses to decide whether to ban concealed weapons or not.

Tricia Knoles, Community Resource Officer for Kent State Police Department, says the decision for concealed carry on campus isn’t up to her department.

“If it is (the law passed), it is totally out of our hands,” Knoles said. “The Board of Trustees has been given the power to enforce policies and that allows us to enforce those policies.”

Kent State says that “it is strictly prohibited for any individual to possess, store or use a deadly weapon or any other dangerous ordinance in and/or on university owned, rented and/or sponsored property”, according to university policy and Ohio Revised Code.

Mike Molnar, senior criminology and justice studies major, has his concealed carry license but thinks the process for obtaining one isn’t strict enough.

“There’s some people in that (training) class I wouldn’t trust behind the wheel of a car, let alone conceal a gun,” Molnar said.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to a have college students, a majority of who get drunk on weekends, to have that close of access to guns all the time,” Molnar added.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, Republican lawmakers have loosened gun laws over the past decade. However, there is no current impending legislation for concealed carry on campuses in Ohio.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who was unavailable for comment, publishes an annual concealed carry report. The number of licenses issued for concealed carry in 2014 states that 58,066 new licenses were issued, as compared to a whopping 96,972 in 2013.

Although licenses issued declined from 2013 to 2014, the number of licenses suspended as risen over the last four years, with 1,412 licenses suspended in 2014.

The annual report for 2015 is expected sometime in March.

Mr. Coley was unavailable for comment.