EDITORIAL: Georgia Campus Carry still off-target

It’s not a surprise that another campus carry bill is making its way through the General Assembly.

And it won’t be a surprise if it passes both the House and Senate and ends up on Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk.

If it does, however, the governor would be wise to do the same thing he did with the 2016 version — veto a bill that’s off-target.

While this year’s bill has dropped one of the sticking points that helped cause the governor to veto it last year by including an exception for daycare centers, it’s still a bad idea to allow licensed gun carriers to take weapons onto the campuses of Georgia’s public colleges and universities, even with athletic events and places like dormitories and fraternity/sorority houses off-limits.

We don’t say this because we are anti-gun rights and don’t support the right to bear arms. That is not the case. We firmly support the Second Amendment and the right to arm oneself for protection of life and property, and for use in activities such as hunting and recreation. We do not believe that right should be eroded. The writer of this editorial, in fact, has a concealed carry permit.

That’s an aspect of this debate that is important to note. A failure of this new Campus Carry effort would not take away anyone’s rights. Those who are not public safety personnel haven’t had the right to tote concealed weapons on campuses, so there is no erosion of rights.

There’s a reason why university and college presidents and campus police chiefs didn’t line up and endorse Campus Carry last year and shouldn’t this year. The chances of passage of such a law helping anything is negligible, but an opportunity for new problems to arise is a significant risk. College campuses are places where young men and women are bridging the period from teen to adult, but those who have gone to college know it’s also a period when many students can make bad decisions.

On balance, the safer option is to beef up security at colleges and the areas around them, if need be, while maintaining the status quo on gun-toting on campus. That is what Georgia should do.

Last year, Deal opted to focus on beefing up college security where it needed to be strengthened. His required colleges and universities to immediately begin intensely reviewing their safety measures for the University System and Technical College System to report to the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. He also said local communities in which colleges and universities are operating should review and, if necessary, improve their security measures around the campuses. Finally, he challenged the General Assembly to crack down on those who bring guns onto campuses illegally by ratcheting up penalties for the lawbreakers.

“From the early days of our nation and state,” Deal said when he vetoed last year’s Campus Carry bill, “colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed. To depart from such time-honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists.”

It still doesn’t.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board