Opposing bills target guns on campus

OLYMPIA – As J.K. Johnson sees it, there’s a fairly simple solution to incidents like last year’s massacre of 32 people by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech.

“The real problem there,” Johnson told state lawmakers recently, “was nobody else was armed.”

This year in the state Senate, two bills squared off that take opposite approaches to the issue of campus safety. And it was a fight to a standstill: Barring a major push to revive them, both bills appear to be dead in committee.

A third proposal, however, backed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is moving ahead. It would set standards for campus safety plans including weapons policies and contact information for sexual assaults, domestic violence, stalking and sexual harassment. The bills, including SB 6328, would also require mutual aid agreements with local agencies and a report by this fall about unmet safety needs on each state campus.

The Senate held a hearing on two gun bills last week, drawing a standing-room-only crowd.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, proposed SB 6841, which would ban most people – including holders of concealed-pistol licenses – from bringing their guns onto state or private colleges in Washington. Violators would risk up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

In response, Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, proposed SB 6860. It would prohibit college officials from adopting rules – as most have – restricting the carrying of concealed firearms by people licensed to do so. She argues that rampages like the one at Virginia Tech “might at least partially be the result of disarming college campuses.”

Murray argues that a uniform ban at all colleges only makes sense. It’s comparable to the existing ban at public schools, he said. And developing good judgment, he said, can also take well into a person’s 20s.

“The way the law is now, students can be more heavily armed than campus security,” said Lori Mille, a professor at Seattle Central Community College.

Most of those at Thursday’s crammed hearing were gun-rights supporters.

Under current restrictions, gun-free zones are better described as “defenseless victim zones,” said Brian Judy, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.

Roach said her bill was aimed at fostering the presence of armed-citizen “immediate responders,” like students or staffers, who would be on-scene long before the “first-responder” police SWAT teams and medics could respond.

Sen. Paull Shin, D-Mukilteo, said he held the hearing primarily to get the two sides talking to each other. He said he wants more discussion of the issue later this year, after the legislative session ends in mid-March.

In the meantime, Shin said, the governor’s safety-plan bill looks like it will pass.

“That’s a good beginning, I think,” he said.