ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia’s public university presidents and police chiefs were strongly opposed to letting people carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Now that Gov. Nathan Deal has signed the campus-carry law, it falls on them to figure out how to implement it before the next school year begins.
Deal’s strenuous objections to guns on campus in a veto message the year before had many Georgians hoping the outgoing Republican governor, who is term-limited and plans to retire next year, would issue another veto.
But Deal said in a written message released Thursday evening that he was swayed by exclusions that lawmakers wrote into House Bill 280, adding places on campus where even people with state-issued permits won’t be allowed to carry concealed handguns.
These include preschools, faculty or administrative offices, disciplinary hearings and areas where high schoolers take classes.
“These excluded areas represent the most ‘sensitive places’ on a college campus,” Deal wrote. “It is altogether appropriate that weapons not be allowed in these areas. I appreciate the thoughtful consideration given by the General Assembly in expanding these excluded areas within a college campus in this year’s bill.”