West Virginia Legislature: House Ed Committee advances bill to force WV colleges to allow concealed

[mountaineer]

House Ed Committee advances bill to force WV colleges to allow concealed guns
Ryan Quinn
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Feb. 9, 2018

The House Education Committee advanced Friday legislation that would require public two-year and four-year colleges to allow people to carry concealed guns on their campuses, including in their buildings and at sporting events, if those individuals have permits.

The bill passed on a voice vote with multiple “no’s” heard, and it’s now heading to the House Judiciary Committee.

Matt Turner, executive vice chancellor of administration for the state agencies overseeing public colleges, wrote in an email that college boards of governors “have the local authority, as property owners, to determine whether they wish to permit deadly weapons, concealed or otherwise, on their campuses.”  ...

West Virginia State University President Anthony Jenkins said all the public Mountain State four-year colleges are opposed to the bill (House Bill 4298). He said many campuses have summer camps with children, and he brought up possibly dangerous situations, like packed rivalry sports games for which people have been “pre-gaming,” or fraternity events with excessive drinking, or a student conduct matter where a student is about to face discipline.

He said colleges should be “grounds where we use our emotional intelligence and our intellectual capacity to agree to disagree, and to interject weapons changes the very foundation of what higher education is supposed to be about.” He said colleges shouldn’t become the “O.K. Corral.”

“Let me speak for West Virginia State University, because I’m the president,” Jenkins said. “I don’t want gun-toting students on campus, and I don’t want gun-toting faculty and staff and administrators on campus.”  ...   FULL STORY

Leave it to the leftist rag Gazette to emphasize the opponents' viewpoint to the exclusion of the obvious constitutional aspects of the bill.

[mountaineer]

The opponents to this bill raised various completely unrelated or outright false arguments. Sen. Bob Beach claimed the NCAA prohibits tournament play on a campus allowing concealed carry. NCAA regs actually say, "Unless otherwise expressly authorized by applicable law, no firearms or weapons are permitted on these premises for NCAA championships and events ..."

As the president of the W.Va. Citizens Defense League, a pro-concealed carry group, commented on Facebook:

Keith Morgan
Admin · 22 hrs · Clarksburg, WV

WVCDL-ALERT: Update 2/9

HB4298 (Campus Carry) passed the House Education committee after a ... predictable debate.

I predicted ridiculous arguments. We got them, with one legislator even bringing up "the security of nuclear materials."

What, like the kind in our smoke detectors? Or are campuses turning wrenches on W78 nuclear warheads for Minuteman III missiles?

And if someone's looking to steal nuclear materials via force of arms, it's my suspicion they'll bring more than a Glock 19.

It's reminiscent of the "dynamite sweatervest" argument on the floor against Constitutional Carry.

Same utterly ridiculous arguments. Same apocalyptic predictions that we see state after state, and over and over here in WV, that never come true.

Expect a media firestorm over this. Bloomberg sent out a blast against it, misleadingly referring to it as "guns in schools." Of course, the intent is to imply the bill allows carry in grade schools, etc...

When logic and reason do not stand up, apparently the only remaining tactics are deception and comical absurdity.

My friends and I have a saying/hashtag, and it seems appropriate. #WATTBA

(What a time to be alive.)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WVCDL/