On Thursday, May 4th, Georgia became the 12th state that mandates that public universities allow people to carry guns on campus. Following Arkansas, Georgia is also the second state to pass campus carry this year. The other eleven states are: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan (can carry openly with a permit), Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee (faculty and staff), Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Unlike Arkansas, the Georgia doesn’t mandate additional requirements to carry on campus than in other places: “Georgia requires people to be at least 21 — or at least 18 with proof of basic training or active service in the military — to receive a concealed carry permit. Applicants must provide fingerprints, which are used by state agencies to check for criminal records, and clear an additional federal background check.”
At the insistence of Governor Deal, the Georgia law carves out some significant gun-free zones: “on-campus preschools, faculty or administrative offices, disciplinary hearings and areas attended by high school students who take college classes” as well as “dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and buildings used for athletic events.”
More details on the campus carry debate can be found here.
There are other lists of states with campus carry laws. According to the New York Times as of February 18, 2015, there were nine states with these laws. Since then, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas passed their campus carry laws after the Times put this graphic together, though the Times already listed Arkansas as a campus carry state. Still, the Times doesn’t include Kansas and Oregon. On the other hand, the New York Times surprisingly includes Oklahoma and Virginia on their list.
If you combine the two list of states, there is at least an argument that there are a total of 14 states with these campus carry laws.
The Washington Post has an article on January 27, 2016 indicating that the Education Commission of the States and NASPA had nine states as of that date: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. This list misses out on Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan (open carry), and Oklahoma.
As John noted the law was not passed without significant restrictions -the Georgia law carves out some significant gun-free zones: “on-campus preschools, faculty or administrative offices, disciplinary hearings and areas attended by high school students who take college classes” as well as “dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and buildings used for athletic events.”- Hopefully it will not take a mass shooting in one of these still ‘gun free’ areas for Governor Deal to reassess his decision. If Governor Deal considered he is responsible for possible lost of life in his ‘gun free’ areas vs. he is responsible for possible lost of life by allowing legal carry in the other areas on campus, he might pause to reconsider his decision.