The College Fix

‘Adults should have the right to protect themselves on campus,’ senator says

A Florida bill being considered this week in the state Senate would allow college students to carry guns on campus, something the lead sponsor said is important after the violent anti-Israel protests across the country.

State Sen. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne, introduced the bill to “extend concealed carry rights to college and university campuses,” according to a news release.

“The Second Amendment does not take the semester off when you step on a college campus,” he stated in a recent X post.

“Adults should have the right to protect themselves on campus, particularly after so many universities across America chose to protect Muslim terror advocates over their own students,” the Republican lawmaker stated, referring to the sometimes violent anti-Israel protests that have taken place on college campuses over the past two years.

“There is no magic force field that keeps criminals from carrying a gun onto campus; this bill will ensure that students have the same rights on campus as they do off,” he said. Fine’s office said he was not available for comment when contacted by The Fix.

If passed, Senate Bill 814 would allow adults to “carry a firearm on the property of any college or university, including, but not limited to, any dormitory or residence hall owned or operated by a college or university, and in any other location he or she is legally authorized to do so.”

Under the bill, higher education institutions could ask the state for permission to designate specific areas as “a sensitive location in which the possession of a concealed weapon or a concealed firearm is prohibited” during athletic events.

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee is scheduled to consider the bill Tuesday, according to the Florida Senate website.

However, the legislation is facing criticism from some college Democrats.

Contacted about the bill via social media, the University of Florida College Democrats told The Fix the club is “strongly against the bill.”

“[We] feel it is an insult to the memory of the victims of the Parkland shooting to actively make schools more unsafe for students when it comes to guns,” the UF College Democrats stated.

“… it will be much scarier to table and host events on campus if we have to be worried about the possibility of someone having a gun,” the student organization stated.

The UF College Democrats told The Fix the club believes “the student body will be overwhelmingly against a bill that makes campus much more unsafe, and I expect our Student Government to state so in a resolution.”

“Carrying guns on campus will undoubtedly make campus more dangerous,” the club told The Fix. “There are many events on campus where there are large crowds. Sometimes outside groups of people come on campus attempting to act provocatively or espouse hateful views.

“We don’t trust the idea of such outside groups being able to carry guns onto campus and then pick fights with students – that sounds like a sure-fire recipe for disaster and anybody who is going to honestly tell you what campus is like will agree with our sentiment,” the club stated.

The Fix contacted several conservative student groups at Florida public universities, as well as state and national conservative organizations that support the Second Amendment, but none responded to requests for comment on social media or via email about campus carry laws and Fine’s bill.

Currently, 11 states allow concealed carry on college and university campuses, according to an article at Campus Safety Magazine. Additionally, 21 leave gun policy decisions up to individual higher education institutions.

However, the laws also vary state by state. In Texas, for example, students may carry handguns on public university campuses if they are at least 21 and have a concealed carry permit, but the law does not apply to private universities.

This spring, a conservative student group at Southern Methodist University is petitioning the private school to allow concealed carry on campus, The Fix reported in February.

MORE: Kyle Rittenhouse speaks at UMemphis – this time ‘without violent disruptions’

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: An individual grabs a concealed handgun. Maksym Dykha/Shutterstock

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