Starting July 1, a new law in Tennessee will permit faculty and staff at all of the state’s public universities to carry concealed firearms. Until then, the campuses remain “gun-free zones.”
The University of Tennessee published a slate of policies this week, regulating concealed carry on its four campuses, in anticipation of the change. The Tennessean reports state legislators had conferred with colleges and law enforcement in crafting the bill to ensure the campuses’ safety.
One new rule at UT states that faculty and staff members may not bring their guns to “meetings regarding discipline or tenure”—probably for the best. Another, barring employees also enrolled in courses from carrying firearms, seems to seal a possible work-study loophole. The law does not allow students to bring handguns on campus.
The bill’s sponsor, state representative Andy Holt, suggests it’s only a matter of time before the permission gets extended to students. Holt said was pleased when Governor Bill Haslam, who opposed the bill, allowed it to pass last month—but not satisfied:
UT faculty who opposed the legislation have since turned their focus from blocking it to regulating its safe implementation. According to an online poll conducted by UT Knoxville’s faculty senate in April before the bill passed, most of the 42% of faculty who responded to the survey do oppose the legislation: 88% believe having guns on campus is not “in the best interest of the campus community.” In optional open-ended comments, 58 threatened to leave or resign when guns come to campus, while only 17 wrote that they support the law to any degree.
According to the Washington Post, nearly forty states prohibit guns on campuses. But policies continue to shift. A Texas law permitting concealed carry on campuses for anyone over the age of 21 will take effect in August. California universities adopted a system-wide handgun ban only last year.
The Tennessee law will set in exactly one month after a faculty member at a major California university was slain. On June 1, a former graduate student shot and killed a professor and then himself on the University of California Los Angeles campus. While a SWAT team scoured the campus in tony Westwood, students and faculty waited on red alert for hours—in the meantime, many mistook plainclothes officers for the reported shooter.
The UCLA episode prompted some Second Amendment advocates to trumpet the majority position of Tennessee lawmakers—that gun-free zones are by definition unsafe. Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, continue to argue that guns on campuses increase risks of violence and create an atmosphere of unease.
