NASHVILLE -- The recent mass shooting at an Oregon community college has some Tennessee lawmakers now looking at loosening restrictions to allow at least some state-issued handgun permit holders to go armed on state public college and university campuses.
Following a state Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hearing today focusing on campus safety issues, Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said he is weighing filing a bill to allow faculty and employees with permits to bring their firearms on campus.
Sen. Mike Bell
R-Riceville"Current law is you can only have it in your car if you're a non-student," Bell told reporters. "Students can't keep it in their car under current law."
He said "one of the ideas I'm looking at is allowing employees and faculty to carry. As a start, if the Legislature decides this is a good direction to go, I think a start would be to allow employees and staff to carry."
That could come with a "notification requirement" where campus police or security chiefs be notified, Bell said. "Those are just some of the things that I'm thinking about right now. I've not put anything on paper yet."
Sen. Reggie Tate, D-Memphis, has ideas of his own and they don't include relaxing restrictions.
"I want to be proactive," said Tate, a member of the committee and an architect. He said he intends to do some research to "put something in place in terms of response" by campus police.
"I'm not really into that," Tate said of allowing permit holders to go armed on campus. "Not at all. I'm not into that legislation not whatsoever. i really want the professionnals to have alternatives and responses in places. Instead of reacting i want it to be proactive. I want it to be departmental and not us."
According to news accounts, nine people were killed and nine others wounded in the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. The 26-year-old gunman, later fatally shot himself after being wounded in a shootout with police. In the days that followed, shootings at Arizona and Texas universities left two people dead and four others wounded.
During today's Tennessee Senate subcommittee hearing, law enforcement professionals from the University of Tennessee and Tennessee Board of Regents systems testified regarding various steps they have taken in recent years to promote safety for students.