EE.UU: Georgia’s governor vetoes bill to allow concealed weapons at public colleges

Protesters rallied against the campus-carry legislation last month in Athens, Ga., home of the U. of Georgia. Gov. Nathan Deal said the measure failed to give campuses flexibility to set their own rules.

Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia vetoed legislation on Tuesday that would have made his state the 10th to allow licensed gun holders to carry concealed weapons in most locations on public-college campuses.

The governor, a Republican who has supported expanding the right to carry guns in places as sensitive as bars and churches, waited until the final day of a 40-day bill-signing period to announce his decision on the politically explosive issue of campus carry.

«From the early days of our nation and state, colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed,» the governor wrote. «To depart from such time-honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists. Therefore, I veto HB 859.»

All of his options on the campus-carry bill carried risks. Sign the law and anger those in higher education who have flooded his office with emails and letters saying they would feel less safe — not more — if guns were allowed on their campuses.

Or veto it and further enrage conservatives who are still stinging about his veto of a «religious liberty» bill that critics said would discriminate against gay people.

If Governor Deal neither vetoed nor signed the legislation by Tuesday, it would have automatically become law.

That’s the approach Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, took late Monday, when a bill allowing faculty and staff members — but not students — to be armed on public-college campuses became law without his signature.

Both governors had expressed misgivings about the bills introduced in their states, and wanted more flexibility for campuses to set their own rules.

The Georgia measure would have allowed anyone 21 or older with a weapons license to carry a concealed gun anywhere on a public-college campus unless the area was specifically excluded. The areas lawmakers carved out for exclusions included dormitories, sporting-event venues, and fraternity and sorority houses.

In the final days of the legislative session, Mr. Deal asked lawmakers to tweak HB 859, to give individual colleges the flexibility to ban guns from campus day-care centers, disciplinary hearings, and faculty and administrative offices. He also expressed concern about the safety of high-school students who are also enrolled in college courses.

Lawmakers refused to change the bill, saying that doing so would gut the intent of the legislation.

Fuente de la noticia: http://chronicle.com/article/Governors-Veto-Wont-End/236343

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