Senator discusses recent SGA anti-gun bill of opinion with W&M General Assembly

A student senator spoke to the College of William & Mary’s Student Assembly about putting together a anti-gun bill similar to the one organized by the Student Government Association at JMU.

Freshman Sara Lunsford traveled to W&M Jan. 26 to discuss the bill of opinion she introduced into the Student Senate at JMU.

"Some students there approached me to express solidarity with the work that JMU students have done to attempt to preserve safety on university campuses," Lunsford said.

The bill passed by the SGA at JMU "expressed support for the right of colleges and universities to have weapons policies without going into detail on what those policies should be," Lunsford said. "It also stated the intent to ask the Virginia General Assembly to do similarly and make it into a law."

Lunsford said the W&M bill was different from the JMU bill because it asked for a "referendum to be put on the ballot for their spring elections, asking whether they approved of William & Mary’s weapons policy."

There are two bills in The Virginia General Assembly regarding the issue of allowing guns on university campuses.

The House of Delegates’ bill (HB2897) will come before the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee Feb. 4. The Senate bill (SB 1343) will be before the Courts of Justice Committee Feb. 7.
HB 2897 "revises the statute that prohibits weapons on public school grounds," JMU spokesman Andy Perrine said. SB 1343 "gives our Board of Visitors power to create policies about weapons."
Lunsford said it is important that these bills pass.

"The right of institutions of higher learning to make policies … has long been assumed for the purpose of maintaining safety and academic freedom," Lunsford said. "Passing these bills would not place any additional restrictions upon individuals, but would rather ensure the continuance of an essential system."

David Briggman, a man who brought a lawsuit against JMU seeking revision of JMU’s weapons policy to allow for people to carry weapons on campus, said he has never "argued or proposed that one should be able to carry firearms in places where Virginia law doesn’t provide."

"However," Briggman said, "the largest problem with these types of policies in Virginia is that many of Virginia’s public colleges and universities (especially land-grant schools) are so vast and expansive that one might never know when he or she is on campus property, thus they might not know when they may be in violation of a campus’ policy."

"One may carry a legally-possessed firearm in to the General Assembly, concealed or otherwise, while the GA is in session," Briggman said. He added that he is hopeful legislation proposed will allow weapons policy determinations to made by the GA entirely, not individual schools.