The Senate Criminal Justice Committee of Florida has voted 3-2 to allow anyone 21 years old and above with concealed firearms licenses to carry their guns inside colleges and universities.
Republican Rep. Greg Evers, chairman of the committee, said Senate Bill 176 aims to make school campuses a safer place for students against rapists, murderers, thieves, and other criminals who take advantage of the long-standing prohibition of carrying firearms inside schools.
"The problem is that in gun-free zones, [which] we have on college campuses right now, those gun-free zones are just an incubator for folks that won't follow the law," Evers said.
The bill, which is set for deliberation in three other committees, is lauded by gun advocates who warn that college campuses have increasingly become hotbeds of sexual assault, shootings and other crimes.
Marion Hammer, lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, said that carrying weapons is a Second Amendment right and people should not have their "constitutional rights violated" just because they are stepping into a campus.
"The plain truth is that campuses are not safe," Hammer said. "They are gun-free zones where murderers, rapists, terrorists, crazies may commit crime without fear of being harmed by their victims."
Other states, including Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, are also in the process of debating the merits of passing a similar campus carry bill that allows carrying concealed firearms in schools. Proponents believe such a law would contribute to fending off campus rapes and crimes, which have increasingly become common.
"If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them," said Rep. Michele Fiore of Nevada. "The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head."
However, opponents of the campus carry bill say arming students with guns is not the answer to the increasing incidence of crimes taking place in schools. Instead, campuses would become even more dangerous as students are exposed to the risks of combining firearms and young people's reckless behavior.
Marjorie Sanfilippo, a psychology professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, said it is "mere speculation and ignorance of statistical probability" to assume that armed students will deter campus crimes.
"Proponents will tell you that allowing conceal carry will protect female students from sexual assault," Sanfilippo said. "I will point out the obvious; you'll be arming the assailants too."
Sexual assault experts have also weighed in on the issue, criticizing campus carry supporters' lack of understanding of campus rapes, where women are typically assaulted by someone they already know.
"If you have a rape situation, usually it starts with some sort of consensual behavior, and by the time it switches to non-consensual, it would be nearly impossible to run for a gun," said John D. Foubert, national president of One in Four, a program that educates students about campus sexual assaults. "Maybe if it's someone who raped you before and is coming back, it theoretically could help them feel more secure."
