03-15-2008, 09:31 AM
Sen. Erwin to amend campus gun bill
Quote:Sen. Erwin to amend campus gun bill
Senator said shootings in Auburn and Chapel Hill fueled decision to make changes
Wayne Grayson and Dave Folk
The Crimson White
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: News
Before going into a committee meeting early Thursday morning, Sen. Hank Erwin told The Crimson White he plans to make two amendments to one of his highly debated campus gun bills.
The first amendment would remove a portion of the current legislation that allows students who meet certain qualifications to carry a gun on state university and college campuses if they are involved in a campus ROTC program.
A second amendment would disqualify any students currently on any psychological drugs from consideration for carrying a gun on campus.
Erwin said he included the ROTC portion in the first draft of the bill to ease the minds of university officials.
"I put that in there originally to make that as a test experiment to make that a very narrow bill that would maybe give feelings of security to the university officials all over the state of Alabama that we're not going to open this up and make it a Wild West," he said.
He said he felt the requirement added an element of supervision to the process required for students to carry a gun.
"It led me to think that, with that type of military training and professionalism, that they would be the best ones to experiment with to see if it would work," Erwin said.
However, Erwin said his opinion has changed in light of the recent shootings in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Auburn.
"But I'm going to put in an amendment to delete that particular point so that it opens it up to any student, especially women," he said. "After the Auburn shooting, I want to make sure that women have priority to be able to carry on campus."
"The girls are the most vulnerable, and I know that a lot of parents are concerned about the safety of their girls when they send them off even if they're sending them out down the road to the grocery store," Erwin said. "And some parents have gone so far as to get their girls license to carry even when they're not in college. So why should they be denied the right to protect themselves on a college campus if their parents feel like they ought to be protected when they're going to the shopping mall?"
Erwin said he thinks, when universities impede students from bringing guns onto their respective campuses, they are breaking state law.
"If the state feels like you're qualified to carry in your own hometown, why would you not be able to carry on a college campus?" Erwin said....
Erwin said the second amendment, which would add a stipulation to the legislation that will prevent students who are on any psychological drugs from carrying a gun on campus, will ensure that those students with a gun on campus will be able to make clear-minded decisions.
"[The amendment is designed] to ensure that folks who have some emotional challenges don't create a problem to the entire student body while they work through those challenges," he said.
Erwin offered the bill for consideration in the state legislative session starting Feb. 5 and said he was inspired to do so after witnessing the aftermath of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute shootings on April 16, 2007.
"The college campus has always been considered to be a bubble of security where students can come and grow into adulthood," Erwin said. "But Virginia Tech smashed that to smithereens.
"I say it's time to let the law abiding students defend themselves."