Armed and Dangerous?

The state House concealed weapons bill, still under consideration, seems to be causing a ruckus on local college and university campuses across the Tri-parishes.

State Rep. Ernest Wooten of Belle Chasse authored HB 199. If approved, the law would authorize concealed handgun permit holders to carry concealed weapons on Louisiana school campuses. A vote is slated to be rendered before the House adjourns in June.

Currently, citizens are protected under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which maintains the right to bear arms. However, there are a multitude of places statewide that are considered “firearm free zones” including churches, polling places, courthouses, airports, jails and the Capitol Building where the legislation is being held.

A House committee heard arguments from student government leaders and top state education officials Thursday before casting an 11-3 vote in favor of the bill.

During the three-hour debate, State Rep. Roy Burrell of Shreveport proposed an amendment that would lift the prohibition in a few of the “firearm free zones,” but committee members shot it down with a 10-2 vote.

Nicholls State University Student Government President Olinda Ricard, who testified before the committee, said she finds it appalling that the Legislature would pass a bill allowing guns on universities and colleges, where students are in a educational setting, and prohibit it in its own work environment.

“To us, it seems like [lawmakers] value their safety more than ours,” she said.

Nicholls’ President Dr. Stephen Hulbert addressed the media opposing the bill a day before meeting with the House committee. He said he is far from naïve and understands that students and faculty bring guns to school. But he believes that in the interest of the campus safety, university police should be the only gun wearers on campus property.

“I am not speaking out in opposition to individuals having or possessing a gun within the ordinance of the law,” Hulbert said. “I have heard from a number of students in the last few days as the talk of the legislation has made its way around campus. The students don’t want students on campus being able to carry a concealed weapon and I support them.”

Hulbert believes that the passage of the law will limit the authority of the university to ensure that guns are not present at Nicholls.

“We have 7,000 students and approximately 1,000 staff and faculty on any given day,” Hulbert said. “We have no gates and no fences around the university. It is in my mind and incumbent on me as the president of the university to ensure that the only individuals that have guns on this campus are university police, who are trained in handling weapons and crisis situations.”

Hulbert said he does know that society has changed dramatically in the last decade, and guns are still in the hands of individuals who don’t need them. Also, he said, campus security is more tense following last year’s shooting at Virginia Tech. In fact, drawing from the response to issues the university experienced notifying other students of the danger in the aftermath of the shooting, Nicholls instituted its own emergency notification system at the outset of this semester.

Because of the dangers students now face, Hulbert reasons on-campus security should be stepped up but does not favor allowing untrained individuals to carry guns on campus.

Hulbert is not alone in his quest to keep concealed handguns off university campuses. The University of Louisiana System Council of Presidents and the Faculty Advisory Council have recently issued resolutions opposing the bill.

“The Faculty Advisory Council believes that the events the bill is designed to curtail are extremely rare and that, if it passes, it has the potential to increase campus violence,” said Mary Sue Ply, chair of the Faculty Advisory Council and Southeastern Louisiana University Faculty Senate representative.

The resolutions follow the lead of the statewide Council of Student Presidents, which drafted its own resolution against the concealed weapons bill.

“We commend the students for taking such an important stand for campus safety,” University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Ray Authement told the students in a release. “We support your efforts and have unanimously passed a resolution that supports the need for campus safety to remain in the hands of qualified law enforcement personnel.”

Representatives from L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College in Houma, which is part of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, also met with House committee last week regarding the bill.

Fletcher Chancellor Travis Lavigne Jr. said the governing board has not taken an official position because the Board of Regents and the higher education community have difficulties with the bill in its current form.

The school currently operates under a “Firearm Free Zone” and has not had any difficulty enforcing the policy, according to Lavigne.

Fletcher does not have full-time security like Nicholls. The school works closely with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office by contracting with off-duty duties for night classes and other events when deemed necessary.

Max Cheramie, a drafting major at Fletcher, said he is not in favor of the bill because the presence of handguns on campus could potentially increase the number of shooting massacres that occur on college campuses.

“I think carrying weapons and policing the campus should be left up to law enforcement agencies,” Cheramie said.

The Louisiana State University Daily Reveille reported on April 18 that LSU’s Student Senate narrowly favors the legislations. The report said that the university’s Senate spent nearly two hours deliberating on the resolution.

Other states are also toying with the notion allowing concealed handguns on university and college campuses. States like Utah, Colorado and Virginia already allow handguns on campus.

In 2004, Utah was the only state that specifically loosened its restriction to allow people to carry concealed weapons on public colleges. The University of Utah tried to challenge the law in 2006, but the state’s supreme court upheld the legislation.

Since the Virginia Tech shooting, Virginia law stipulates that schools can decide whether to allow students with concealed-handgun permits to carry their weapons on campus. Virginia’s Blue Ridge Community College adheres to the law.

A Cleveland, Ohio, news station reported that Ohio is considering allowing licensed handgun carriers on campus. A report said many of the students favor the legislation because they believe that the law might be what campuses need to stop the next campus gunman.

Closer to home, South Carolina’s Legislature defeated a bill that would have allowed permit holders to carry guns onto public school campuses.

Locally, several law enforcement agencies have declined to comment on the proposed law until after the 2008 regular session is over.

Lt. Sam Pruitt, spokesman for the Thibodaux Police Department, said Police Chief Craig Melancon told him that the department would have to sit down and understand what the legislation is trying to propose before the department takes a stance on the issue.

However, Melancon said it is the department’s duty to protect citizens on campus and in schools against those carrying concealed weapons, which is the law at this particular time.

Houma Police Chief Pat Boudreaux also declined to comment.

However, Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Larry Weidel said the proposed law is a concern.

“I think there is not a need for individuals to carry concealed weapons on a campus because they can be taken or stolen and used for violent acts on and off campus,” he said. “The sheriff’s office has a cooperative effort between the city police and campus police to keep campuses safe.”

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said he believes in the right to carry a firearm, especially for individuals who are certified to do so, but not the right to have concealed weapons on college campuses.

He said the legislation should not dictate to universities and colleges that people with permits be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.

“That should be up to the school’s discretion,” he said. “Having students or anyone walk on campus with a concealed weapon is not going to be a comfortable setting. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be sitting next to or around someone with a concealed gun on them or in their personal belongings.”

Larpenter said there is no sound plan to keep gunmen from coming on campus because if someone wants to repeat incidents similar to the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University shootings, “they will find a way to do it,” he said. “So carrying a concealed weapon on campus will not help combat school shootings.”

His suggests schools either hire an undercover officer to carry concealed weapons on campus or build brick walls with security entrances.

But he said many schools don’t have enough money to secure campuses to those extremes.

The Louisiana State Police can only issue a $50 two-year or $100 four-year permit for a concealed weapon.

Prior to the issuance, every applicant has to go through a vigorous criminal background check and attend a training course given by either a private trainer or the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Larpenter said before it was mandated that State Police issue concealed weapons permits, he issued about 300 permits to business owners per year.

As of press time, Louisiana State Police Troop C spokesman Gilbert Dardar could not disclose the number of permits issued in the Tri-parishes to date.

State Rep. Ernest Wooten of Belle Chasse has authored a bill that would allow concealed weapons on university and school campuses. * Photo courtesy of DOUG KEESE NSU

Doug Keese