Democratic Bill Prohibits Concealed Carry on College Campuses

“I fear for my life on campus now, going to class each day with the knowledge that, at any moment, my lecture hall might become the site of a shooting, my classmates the victims shown on television, my parents the ones receiving frantic texts of ‘I love you,’” said Nessa Bleill, founder and president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Students Demand Action. Photo by Baylor Spears, Wisconsin Examiner.

Democratic lawmakers want to align gun laws for Wisconsin colleges and universities with those in place for K-12 schools by prohibiting concealed carry on campuses.

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Rep. Brienne Brown (D-Whitewater) said during a press conference Wednesday that the bill would help protect students at a time when schools continue to be targets of gun violence.

“We know that responsible gun safety measures, when they’re implemented in states — they do work. They reduce the incidence of firearm injury and death,” Roys said. “But we have a patchwork across the country. Until more states and the federal government step forward to enact gun safety measures, we are still going to make a public policy choice that allows an unprecedented amount of gun violence in this country.”

The bill would ban possession of a firearm on public and private college campuses even with a permit. If someone violated the prohibition, they would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

State law currently prohibits people from carrying a gun in a building owned by the state, but this does not apply to someone with a license to carry a concealed weapon.

Wisconsin’s concealed carry law does not permit people to be armed in certain buildings owned by the state including police stations, prisons, courthouses and schools, and if someone violates this, they are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. This doesn’t currently include college or university buildings.

Colleges do have the option, under state law, to post notice on a building to prevent someone from entering with a firearm. In this case, a person, even with a license, would be guilty of trespassing and is subject to a Class B forfeiture, which is a forfeiture not to exceed $1,000.

While there is not a state statute prohibiting concealed carry on campuses, University of Wisconsin system policy does prohibit people from carrying, possessing or using any dangerous weapon on university property and in university buildings and facilities, including dorms.

The bill has a slim number of exceptions including for a law enforcement officer, for military personnel in the line of duty and for someone who possesses the firearm for use in a program approved by the university or college, such as if the school has a shooting range.

Lawmakers made the announcement just a few hours after reports of a shooting four-and-a-half hours away from the Wisconsin State Capitol at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. Students, who attend the Catholic school, had gathered for mass to celebrate the start of the school year. Two children are dead and 17 others, including 14 children, were injured.

Brown, who represents UW-Whitewater, said she had just heard the news out of Minneapolis.

“I’m pretty frustrated,” said Brown, who was tearing up. She said she has been constantly asked by students, staff and faculty what can be done about gun violence at universities, adding that they can’t handle the issue on their own.

“This is a generation that has grown up with school lockdown drills. We have absorbed images of children dying at the hands of armed shooters,” Brown said. “We have witnessed adults doing nothing about it or weakening the laws that were already in place… School should not be another place where they can be victimized by gun violence. As the mother of teens who will soon be off to college, we need to do better.”

According to a CNN review of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been 44 school shootings in the U.S. this year, as of August 27. Of those, 22 were on college campuses.

Wisconsin Democrats’ proposal also comes amid about a dozen college campuses across several states, including Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, facing disruptions this week due to hoax calls reporting school shooters. UW-Madison received an unsubstantiated call about an active shooter on Monday. According to WPR, the call was determined to be false quickly, so the campus did not activate its campus emergency alert system.

Nessa Bleill, founder and president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Students Demand Action and a survivor of a mass shooting at a parade in Illinois in 2022, said she has feared for her life at school since kindergarten.

“I fear for my life on campus now, going to class each day with the knowledge that, at any moment, my lecture hall might become the site of a shooting, my classmates the victims shown on television, my parents the ones receiving frantic texts of ‘I love you,’” Bleill said. “This fear lives in the mind of every American student… We deserve better than this violent reality and the fear it causes…. There is a solution to this fear — ensuring that no kid has any reason to be scared for their life at school — that solution, however, takes action from students like me and especially action from lawmakers.”

Roys said the legislation could also help reduce incidents of suicide among students.

“One-third of college students have contemplated suicide within the past year,” Roys said. “As we know that suicide by gun is the most lethal form that it can take. With access to a gun, 90% of suicides are completed… but if you do not have access to a gun, only 4% of suicide attempts are completed. This is an important, life-saving measure.”

Support from Republican lawmakers, who hold the majority in the Assembly and Senate, will be necessary for the bill to advance.

Roys said the bill will be circulating for cosponsorship, but seemed to doubt Republicans would support the proposal.

“Republicans have been pretty reticent to sign on to gun safety regulation,” Roys said, adding that gun control measures are supported by an array of voters.

The bill authors noted in a press release that Republicans have not signed on to other proposals Democrats have introduced this legislative session. Some of those bills include one requiring a 48-hour waiting period to purchase a gun, one prohibiting undetectable firearms, one requiring gun owners to store their firearms in a safe if they live with a child and one prohibiting the sale of firearms without a background check and going through a federally licensed firearms dealer.

Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a sales tax exemption for gun safes to encourage more gun owners to purchase them and another bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom as a way to address school shootings.

Democratic lawmakers propose prohibiting concealed carry on college campuses in Wisconsin was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.