Hayley Smith
Editor-in-Chief
On Saturday, July 1, 2017, any legally qualified individual over the age of 21 will be able to carry a concealed weapon on any public college campus. Originally, college campuses had been given an exemption to this law, with concealed carry becoming legal in many other public places years earlier.
In order to carry a concealed weapon on campus, or in general one must be at least 21 years old. Guns cannot legally be carried by someone who has been convicted of a felony, an illegal alien, someone under a court restraining order, by someone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, along with many other exceptions.
According to Chief of Police Tim Bryan, individuals looking to purchase a firearm must complete a FBI NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) check. There are loopholes such as garage sales, flea markets or gun shows, where one can skip this step, along with registration and processing.
At Butler, firearms will not be allowed in every building.
“There are exceptions in the statute that will continue to prevent the carrying of concealed handguns in Butler facilities that are located in or near high schools in our service area and in our campus day care facility, EduCare,” President Kim Krull said.
In accordance with this law, there is no training or permit needed to carry a firearm. However, the administration highly encourages one to take steps to get proper training.
“I think anybody who wants to conceal and carry, I would strongly encourage them to go through a weapon safety course of some sort just so they know bad things that can happen,” Vice President of Student Affairs Bill Rinkenbaugh said.
Members of Butler are currently working with legal counselor Ray Connell to craft a policy for students and staff to abide by, while still adhering to all the legalities that are included in the law. According to Rinkenbaugh, this policy will hopefully be ready by April in time to give students and employees an adequate amount of time to prepare for its implementation. This policy will include information dealing with student housing, according to President Kim Krull.
“As the college policy is discussed and revised, student housing will be discussed as well,” Krull said. “Students will have opportunities to learn about, discuss and ask questions about the statute and its impact through student forums, student organization meetings, etc.”
Although Butler does not have any plans to implement a required training course once this law comes into effect, there is an active killer training, ALICE, that is offered to any student or faculty member who is interested. For more information on this or to plan a training course, contact Bryan.
Butler is actively preparing for this law to come into effect, according to both Krull and Rinkenbaugh. There are many individuals working to prepare a policy that will help to keep the campus safe.