Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam allowed legislation that enables faculty at public colleges and universities in the state to carry guns on campus to become law without his signature Monday.
The Tennessean reported:
The bill, Senate Bill 2376, allows full-time faculty, staff and other employees of Tennessee's public colleges and universities who have handgun-carry permits to carry their guns on campus—but they must notify the local law enforcement agency with primary responsibility for security on their campus—the campus police, for example.
The law restricts faculty from carrying guns into stadiums, gymnasiums, and hospitals along with meetings associated with disciplinary or tenure issues. Students are still barred from possessing handguns on campus.
In a letter to the speakers of the House and Senate, Sheldon explained he withheld his signature from the legislation because he supported greater flexibility among institutions "to make their own decisions regarding security issues on campus."
"Although SB 2376 does not go as far as I would like in retaining campus control, the final version of the bill included input from higher education and was shaped to accommodate some of their concerns," he wrote.
Some college faculty in the state have expressed apprehension about the new law.
A poll published last week found that 87 percent of the faculty at the University of Tennessee strongly disagreed that "allowing guns on campus is in the best interest of the campus community," according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
State Sen. Mike Bell said during a Senate floor debate that the faculty opposing the measure "need to take their medication."
"Maybe this will give UT a chance to hire some conservative teachers if we have a mass exodus of some of these liberals who responded to this," Bell said. "There’s a few reasonable comments on here, but not many."
The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that in 2015 eight states allowed concealed carry to some extent on college campuses.