House votes against concealed guns on campuses

HELENA – As the Montana House of Representatives debated a bill that would have allowed concealed carry of guns on college campuses, perhaps the most powerful testimony came from someone 130 miles south the Capitol.

"My son was murdered w/ a gun on the Montana Tech campus in 1982. I urge you to oppose allowing guns on any campus," Frank Hull of Dillon said.

Rep. Jeffrey Welborn, R-Dillon, flashed his concealed carry permit before he told the House that Hull's message was among many he received opposing the bill.

"I don't have it in me to go back to Dillon and tell his parents I voted for this," Welborn said. "I don't see anyone asking for this. People are asking me not to do this."

The House stopped the concealed carry bill with a 49-51 vote.

Rep. Seth Berglee, who carried Senate Bill 143, said holders of concealed weapons permits are responsible and many of them are among the hundreds of veterans attending Montana colleges on the G.I. Bill.

"The right to bear arms shouldn't be infringed upon because you go to college," he said.

Rep. Nicholas Schwaderer, R-Superior, said law-abiding citizens "don't have exceptions to rights when they step onto college campuses."

Some college students are responsible but some "not so much," said Rep. Tom Woods, an adjunct college instructor. The Bozeman Democrat said college is a time of high-pressure during which some students suffer from anxiety and depression and experiment with drugs and alcohol.

"Think back on those times (in college) when you did really stupid things," he said. "Now imagine loaded weapons in that situation."

Woods said the gun lobby is attempting to override local controls but "they're not the ones who are taking the risks with this policy. It's those of us who live and work on campuses, who send our sons and daughters to campuses who take those risks. It's our students who will be dying as a result of this policy."

Rep. Margie MacDonald, D-Billings, recounted the 1990 shooting on Montana State University where Brett Byers, a freshman from Great Falls, shot two students as they slept, not even, it turned out, the students who had made him angry.

The incident spurred tighter gun regulations on campus, set by the Montana Board of Regents. Students may check in weapons, which are locked in storage and must be checked out.

Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen, R-Culbertson, listed campus and military base shootings and said they were all linked by being set at "gun-free zones."

Knudsen said he was a student at the University of Montana during the Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people and was disturbed because he couldn't carry a gun to defend himself should such an incident happen at UM.

Gun-free zones mean "bad guys have access to unarmed victims," he said. "That's unacceptable to me and it should be to all of you. The right to defend yourself should not end at a college campus."

Berglee said Montana has 40,000 concealed carry permit holders. He said would-be mass murderers would have a different mindset if they knew they would be walking into a room with armed people.

"No-gun zones are soft targets," he said. "It gives people with a desire to do harm to others the motivation and confidence they can inflict harm without a very real threat of retaliation or resistance."

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Cary Smith, R-Billings, passed the Senate 26-23.