TN Guns-on-Campus Bill

As many have learned, there is currently pending in Nashville legislation that allows college professors and staff to carry weapons onto campuses of Tennessee’s public colleges and universities.  Here in Chattanooga that means at UTC and Chatt. State everyone from the grounds keepers to the Chancellor, from part-time adjunct instructors to full time coaches can carry concealed weapons at work and amidst students. In response today, campus police officers from Memphis to Chattanooga to Knoxville, concerned parents, and college professors paid a trip to the capital to voice their concerns and to stop this bill.


Jennifer Brooks' Tennessean article  describes the scene that finally culminated in what almost passes for common sense in the legislature.  The state House Judiciary Committee has decided to send State Rep. Andy Holt’s bill to a summer study committee. This is the legislative equivalent of a time out and such a maneuverer lets the bill in all likelihood expire. What one friend described as a face saving move which allows the legislation to wither away without the necessity of a vote on a polarizing issue.


Regardless of where you stand on other aspects of the second amendment, how can mixing gun toting staff and professors with student populations that average between 18-22 years of age be considered responsible?    Security is best left to the police. In the words of ETSU campus Police Chief Jack Cortrell “We train {officers} to take down the guys with the guns.”