Final required Florida House panel approves state Rep. Greg Steube's campus carry gun bill
TALLAHASSEE -- After a contentious 90 minutes of public testimony Thursday, a bill to allow licensed concealed carry holders to bring guns onto university and college campuses passed its final Florida House panel, 13-5.
State Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, is sponsoring the legislation to strike university campuses in Florida from the list of locations that concealed carry permit holders cannot bring their weapons. The House Judiciary Committee, the bill's final stop before it can be sent to the House floor, passed it on a mostly partisan basis, with one Democrat voting to approve.
"The purpose of this bill is not to outsource campus police," Steube said. "The purpose of this bill is so you, as an individual, who has an inherent right to self-defense, guaranteed to you in my opinion by the U.S. Constitution, who's gone through the requisite training, who's gone through the background check, who can legally carry everywhere else in our state -- Publix, Walmart, shopping plazas, restaurants, here, not in this room, but in the capitol -- everywhere else you can carry, but all of a sudden you cross a fictitious line and walk onto a college campus, and you can't carry because there's a law that says you can't.
"Every one of these college campuses that has had a shooting has been a gun-free zone," he added.
Steube sponsored the same bill in the 2015 legislative session at the beginning of the year, bringing it through the same three House panels the latest bill has passed before it stalled. The challenge lies in the Senate, where the Senate Judiciary Chairman Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, declined to put it on the agenda in the 2015 regular session, effectively killing the bill.
Absent a change of heart from Diaz de la Portilla, the same could happen in the 2016 session. The Senate version has passed its first two committees and now sits in legislative limbo without a scheduled vote in the still-needed Judiciary and Rules committees.
One noteworthy difference in the 2016 version is state Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, has signed on as a co-sponsor to the bill. The support of Boyd, the vice majority leader and majority whip in the House, could signal a more aggressive push by House leadership to pass the bill.
Boyd did not return a request for comment.
The bill has drawn tense arguments on all sides. It's opposed by university law enforcement groups and public university presidents, many of whom say it will add pressure and confusion to ensuring student safety. About an equal number of students have spoken for and against it in panel hearings.
During the meeting, opponents continue to cite a $74 million cost to universities around the state should the bill pass. Steube argued the figure was "ridiculous," and read with obvious disbelief a list of proposed costs put forth by public university officials if the bill were to become law.
"Upgrading police facilities to include bullet-proof reception windows and doors, $50,000. Why would you need bullet-proof reception windows and doors for $50,000? Upgrading cashier's office and registration, $300,000. Residence hall magnetometers, $250,000 each at each door. Portable magnetometers at events, $100,000 each, total of $700,000," Steube read. "Recurring costs, screeners at residence halls, because now that law-abiding citizens are carrying we're going to have to screen residents as they enter a residence hall."
The staff analysis of the bill said it will have "indeterminate fiscal impacts."
State Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-Tallahassee, who voted against the bill, said college campuses are a unique learning atmosphere and need to remain firearm free.
"Immaturity, anxiety, mental health issues, the formative years, so many concerns, that to introduce guns and to encourage this on college campuses, is wrong-headed. It's dangerous," Dudley said. "It's a foolish idea. And as a father to three college-aged students, I don't want my kids carrying guns on campus."
Nearly all representatives on the 18-member committee spoke about their feelings on the bill, some even injecting more opinion into the standard yes or no vote.
"Definitely no," said state Rep. Katie A. Edwards, D-Sunrise.
"Yes, for liberty," said state Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven.
Kate Irby, online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055.
This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Final required Florida House panel approves state Rep. Greg Steube's campus carry gun bill ."