As a wave of shootings has swept school campuses at every level, a state appellate court ruling has freed up Second Amendment rights by ruling that university and college campuses are not school districts and therefore are not eligible to waive students’ rights to carry weapons.
The ruling will change the way campuses across the state are approaching gun rights.
At the last GCSC Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved the first reading of a policy that permits anyone of at least 18 years of age, including students, faculty, staff and guests, to carry a weapon on GCSC campuses.
The policy, which must be passed a second time to be officially approved, states the firearm or other weapon must be concealed and not readily accessible within a private vehicle.
“The law currently only allows for firearms and weapons to be carried inside a vehicle that is secured,” director of campus safety and security David Thomasee wrote in an email Thursday.
Florida State University Panama City campus is soon to adopt a similar policy, according campus police officer Lt. Steve Sellers.
When asked about the kind of impact the policy change will have on campus, Major Jim Russell, FSUPC deputy chief of police and spokesman, gave an impartial statement, saying the school’s police department doesn’t take an opinionated position, but “uphold laws.”
Thomasee said active shooters are a possibility in
“There’s hundreds of thousands of fires every year, storms, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes — all of those things are more likely to happen here than an active shooter,” he said. “But, we want to be prepared for the unthinkable, or the unimaginable, so that’s what we do.”
And, for the most part, securing the campus is the same or similar for any emergency crisis situation, he said.
Safe campuses
Since the
FSUPC and GCSC campuses have been relatively safe.
According to data from both schools, weapons violations are rare. Since 2010, FSUPC has reported only one incident involving an illegal weapon on campus; GCSC reported one weapon incident for 2012.
After Columbine in 1999, Maj. Russell wrote in an email, FSU Police Department changed how they prepared for and responded to emergencies.
“We understand disaster can strike anywhere and dedicate much time to intensive and realistic training,” the email stated.
Both police agencies say they are committed to the mission of safe campuses and the policy will not affect the level of security.
“A lot of people are concerned about active shooters ... it’s a situation that you can’t control,” Thomasee said.
“The people that are breaking the law already, don’t care if you have a law that says they can’t do it,” he added. “But, law abiding citizens that are doing the right thing, keeping that firearm concealed in their vehicle, you would never know that” they had a secured firearm.
Offenses, 2011, 2012, 2013
Burglary, 3, 0, 2
Drug law violations, 3, 3, 1
Liquor law violations, 2, 2, 1
Illegal weapons violation, 0, 1, 0
*No murders, manslaughters, sex offenses (forcible and non-forcible), aggravated assaults, arsons or motor vehicle thefts were reported 2011 to 2013.
Offenses, 2010, 2011, 2012
Liquor law arrests, 2, 1, 1
Drug law arrests, 4, 2, 2
Weapon law violations, 1, 0, 0
*No murders, manslaughters, sex offenses (forcible and non-forcible), aggravated assaults, arsons, motor vehicle thefts, burglaries or hate crimes were reported 2010 to 2012.
Crimes reports for 2013 will not be available until latter half of 2014.