State Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and state Sen.
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Two Republicans introduced legislation that would allow concealed weapons in Wisconsin’s public universities and colleges.
The circulation memo to state lawmakers describes how a Nevada college student was raped at gunpoint in 2007. The agency noted in a statement that “the evidence does not support the idea that our campus would be safer if concealed firearms are allowed in our buildings”.
Republicans have majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
UW System President Ray Cross and UW System chancellors also released a brief statement Tuesday, which said the UW System can not now support the bill due to “significant concerns and questions”. As a result, “students and others go unarmed while they’re on campuses and on their way to the institutions because they know they can’t enter buildings with their weapons or safely store them outside”.
The GOP lawmakers are presently circulating their bill among colleagues, looking for additional sponsors to move the legislation forward and eventually to the desk of Governor Scott Walker (R). “In states that allow concealed carry, these mass shooting tragedies have still occurred”. “Allowing concealed weapons inside a building like Camp Randall Stadium, filled with 80,000 people, creates a major security issue”, he said. Devin LeMahieu comes less than two weeks after a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Oregon.
The proposal, to be filed in both chambers this week, repeals current Wisconsin law that prohibits carrying, possessing, or using any unsafe weapon on university or technical college lands, buildings or facilities. He says the real threat is not law-abiding citizens.
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When pressed by reporters on the issue, and asked if the measure would make campuses safer, Walker remained non-committal. “Someone who has gone through and been certified and been able to carry is not someone I’m concerned with in any circumstances”.
