Hb 280 - Campus Carry
| Citation | Vol. 34 No. 1 |
| Publication year | 2018 |
HB 280 - Campus Carry
Taylor Morgan Koshak
Georgia State University College of Law, tkoshak1@student.gsu.edu
Nicholas J. Roger
Georgia State University College of Law, nroger2@student.gsu.edu
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Code Sections: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127.1 (amended)
Bill Number: HB 280
Act Number: 167
Georgia Laws: 2017 Ga. Laws 341
Summary: The Act broadens lawful gun owners' rights by allowing weapons carry license holders to carry concealed guns on property owned or leased by public institutions of postsecondary education. The Act creates exceptions for sporting events, student housing, childcare spaces, classes for a college and career academy and other specialized schools, classrooms for dual enrollment programs, and spaces for administrative disciplinary proceedings. The law creates a misdemeanor penalty for noncompliance, and provides definitions for clarification.
Effective Date: July 1, 2017
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History
Fueled by an increase in gun violence at colleges, most notably the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech that left thirty-three dead,1 some state legislatures recently pushed for measures to allow concealed carry weapons permit holders to carry guns on college campuses.2 The "campus carry" debate pits national gun rights organizations like the National Rifle Association (NRA) squarely against universities and state boards of regents, who overwhelmingly oppose any such campus carry legislation.3 As a result, nationwide campus carry-specific organizations formed, including Students for Concealed Carry in 20074 and the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus in 2008.5
In 2004, Utah became the first state to allow campus carry.6 Currently, thirty-four states have enacted campus carry statutes of some form.7 Ten states, including the 2017 additions of Arkansas and Georgia, have enacted laws allowing campus carry at public
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universities.8 Of these, Mississippi and Idaho require those carrying weapons on campuses to have an "enhanced" license, which requires more training.9 Although most of these ten states passed campus carry measures through the state legislatures, courts in Colorado and Oregon created "judicial campus carry" by holding university bans on guns unconstitutional.10 Twenty-three states included provisions allowing individual public colleges to decide whether to permit campus carry.11 The vast majority of colleges in these states have opted to ban firearms on campuses.12 In Tennessee, only faculty members may carry weapons on college campuses.13
Prior to 1976, it was legal in Georgia to carry handguns on campus.14 In that year, Georgia's General Assembly added "schools or school functions" to the list of public gatherings where weapons were prohibited.15 Since 1976, a Georgia Weapons Carry License (GWCL) holder's violation of this weapons prohibition has been a
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misdemeanor.16 A violation by a non-GWCL holder, on the other hand, has been a felony, punishable by a penalty of up to a $10,000 fine, two to ten years imprisonment, or both.17 In 2016, the Georgia General Assembly legalized the carry of "electroshock weapons," such as stun guns and Tasers, by students on college campuses.18 This legislation, dubbed "campus carry lite," was introduced by Rep. Buzz Brockway (R-102nd) as a "middle ground" in the campus carry debate, providing an alternative way for students to protect themselves.19
Georgia legislators first attempted to pass a law allowing weapons on college campuses in 2008.20 Since 2011, campus carry legislation has been introduced every year, but failed to make it out of committee until 2016.21 The Georgia Board of Regents, which has vehemently opposed these attempts, lobbied against campus carry measures, stating that allowing guns on campus will reduce students' personal safety rather than increase it.22 GeorgiaCarry.org, a gun rights organization, has lobbied in favor of campus carry provisions in Georgia since 2007, following the Virginia Tech shooting.23
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In 2016, for the first time, a campus carry bill passed both the Georgia House and Senate.24 In that year, House Bill (HB) 859 was spurred on by multiple incidents in December of 2015 and January of 2016, where students were robbed at gunpoint inside the Georgia State University library.25 It passed by a vote of 113 to 59 in the House and 37 to 17 in the Senate.26 After HB 859's passage, Governor Nathan Deal (R) called on the General Assembly to amend the bill to include places where weapons would remain prohibited.27 However, the General Assembly refused to amend the bill and sent it to the Governor's desk as-is.28
Governor Deal vetoed the bill on May 3, 2016.29 In his veto statement, Governor Deal stated "the right to keep and bear arms in sensitive places such as those enumerated in HB 859 is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment nor the Georgia Constitution."30 He invoked the opinion of Justice Scalia in the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court held Second Amendment protection did not extend to sensitive places.31 He also cited an 1824 meeting of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, attended by Thomas Jefferson and James
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Madison, which prohibited weapons on its campus.32 However, Deal left the door open for future legislative attempts. After noting that college campuses have long been treated as "sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed," he did not say campus carry would be incompatible with such a tradition, only that "depart[ing] from such time-honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists."33
Bill Tracking of HB 280
Consideration and Passage by the House
Representatives Mandi Ballinger (R-23rd), Alan Powell (R-32nd), John Meadows (R-5th), Rick Jasperse (R-11th), Vernon Jones (D-91st), and Christian Coomer (R-14th) sponsored HB 280 in the House.34 The House read the bill for the first time on February 8, 2017, and committed it to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.35 The House read the bill for the second time on February 9, 2017.36 On February 27, 2017, the House Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security amended the bill in part and favorably reported the bill by substitute.37
The Committee substitute included almost all of the introduced bill's text, and merely changed the text of one subsection.38 The Committee substitute changed some of the language found in Section 1 of the bill beginning on line 24.39 The Committee altered the language that excludes carrying "if such public institution of
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postsecondary education has more than one building on the campus housing preschool space" to require "more than three buildings on the campus housing preschool space."40
The House read the bill for a third time on March 3, 2017.41 The House passed the Committee substitute of HB 280 on March 3, 2017, by a vote of 108 to 63.42
Consideration and Passage by the Senate
Senator Bill Heath (R-31st) sponsored HB 280 in the Senate.43 The Senate first read HB 280 on March 3, 2017.44 The Senate assigned HB 280 to the Judiciary Committee, which made only one addition to the bill and favorably reported the bill by substitute on March 20, 2017.45
The Committee substitute contained additional language in Section 1 of the bill beginning on line 26.46 The new language created another exclusion to concealed carry.47 The Committee substitute added language stating the law did "[n]ot apply to any specialized school for high school students as described in paragraph (5) of subsection (b) of Code section 20-4-37[.]"48 This created a new exception to the bill, whereby one cannot carry a handgun into specialized schools established as charter schools; schools that advance workforce development, like trade schools; or class courses for which the school cooperates with postsecondary institutions, for example, by allowing high school students to attend classes for college credit.49
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The Senate read the bill for the second time on March 20, 2017.50 Eight days later, on March 28, 2017, the Senate voted 35 to 17 to engross the bill.51 By engrossing the bill, the Senate created a version of the bill that reflected all of the Senate's amendments.52 However, it also took away the Senate's ability to amend or change the bill moving forward, and from then on the Senate could only agree or disagree with House amendments.53 Later in the day on March 28, 2017, the Senate read the bill a third time and adopted the Senate substitute by a vote of 32 to 22.54 As a result, the bill left the Senate as an engrossed version encompassing all of the Senate's changes.
Conference Committee
On March 30, 2017, the House disagreed with the Senate's amendment.55 The Senate insisted on their own amendments, and the House insisted in response that their amendments were most appropriate.56 As a result, Representatives Mandi Ballinger, Rick Jasperse, and Alan Powell; and Senators Bill Heath, Gregg Kirk (R-13th), and Frank Ginn (R-47th) were appointed to a Conference Committee on that same day.57
The Conference Committee made several substantive amendments to the bill in a Committees of Conference Substitute.58 The Committee inserted in Section 1 at line 17 language creating a
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misdemeanor violation for licensed holders who violate the subsection and felony violations for non-license holders...
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