Despite opposition from UNC- System police chiefs, a state law allowing concealed weapons on college campuses will go into effect Oct. 1. As a result, N.C. State Police Chief, Jack Moorman, and others are concentrating on gun safety education.
North Carolina House Bill 937, which also allows concealed firearms in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, became law in July. However, the bill does impose some restrictions on the use of guns.
“This legislation prohibits guns in classrooms, dorms and administrative buildings on college campuses. Additionally, this legislation gives bar owners the authority to prohibit guns in their establishments,” Gov. Pat McCrory said, according to WRAL.
Prior to McCrory signing the bill, Moorman and police chiefs from other UNC System schools attended a committee hearing at the general assembly to “make sure the opinion of the chiefs in the UNC System [was] heard,” according to Moorman.
They presented a letter, signed by all UNC System police chiefs, addressing their concerns.
“What is first and foremost with myself has always been the safety of our campus, the safety of our students,” Moorman said. “We felt this bill was not in the best interest of promoting the safety of out students.”
Moorman said there were several reasons for his trip to the general assembly. Two of them involve restricting guns to the owners’ vehicles.
“Any weapon on campus would have to be stored in a vehicle, and vehicle break-ins are a crime that occurs on college campuses,” Moorman said. “You have a potential there for a vehicle to be broken into and a gin falling into the hands of the individual who committed the crime.”
Another scenario where the gun rights bill might cause trouble is in the event of a “shooter situation,” Moorman said.
“Individuals might return to their vehicle to get their weapon if there’s a shooter on campus,” Moorman said. “If anyone did that it would lead to chaos and confusion and not knowing who the shooter was. We didn’t want some well-intentioned citizen mistakenly identified as the perpetrator.”
Some students, like Junior in animal science, Adrianna Burchfield, agree with Moorman and the UNC System chiefs.
“Adding more [guns] to a campus of young adults who don’t always make good decisions seems to be more detrimental than safe,” Burchfield said. “Guns are only safe in the right hands.”
Despite concerns, Moorman said University Police is not going to protest the law — instead, they will educate students and faculty on gun safety.
“Our whole purpose in going down [to the general assembly] then was to make sure they understood out concerns,” Moorman said. “Now that that it becomes a law October 1, our focus has really switched to education. There’s no point in continuing to voice opposition to it.”
In order to educate N.C. State’s campus on gun safety, University Police held an educational meeting on Centennial campus earlier this month and planned another meeting Sept. 25 from 11:30a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Harrelson Hall room 113.
“We do [these meetings] periodically to make sure we maintain as good of communication as we can with the campus community,” Moorman said.
The meeting will include information about safety concerns for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as changes to state gun laws. For more information, call 919.515.5963.
