Your college student’s classmate may be carrying a gun into the lecture hall this fall

When classes begin at area colleges later his month, some students will have something extra in their backpack besides their laptop, paper and pens: a gun.

Amid controversy, the state Legislature passed a new law this year expanding the places where students, faculty and staff can legally take weapons on Georgia’s public college campuses. The law went into effect in July.

Previously, guns were allowed only on school grounds if they were locked in a car, said Shawn Douglas, Middle Georgia State University’s police chief.

Now, handguns are allowed in classrooms as long as high school students aren’t enrolled in the class and no high school programs are being held in the space, Douglas said.

“It is incumbent upon the gun owner to check to see if there will be any of those people registered in the class,” he said.

Guns are still banned from residence halls, administrative staff offices, offices where disciplinary hearings are held, and venues where intercollegiate sports are played.

They also are prohibited in day care centers, such as the one on Fort Valley State University’s campus, Chief Ken Morgan said.

To be legal, guns must be concealed.

Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed similar legislation last year amid an uproar from gun control advocates. Second Amendment activists call the new law a safety measure for students, faculty and staff to protect themselves, while critics have said allowing more guns on campus will create an unsafe environment and lead to more killings and suicides.

Concealed carry permits — issued by county probate courts — require that an applicant be at least 21 years old, or be 18 or older while either actively serving in the military or after receiving an honorable discharge.

At Fort Valley State, the majority of students are younger than 21, coming straight out of high school, leaving just a small population of students who meet the requirements to legally bring a gun on campus, Morgan said.

The law doesn’t affect carrying rights on private campuses such as Macon’s Wesleyan College and Mercer University.

“Our policy has not changed,” said Larry Brumley, Mercer’s senior vice president for marketing communications.

Dawn Nash, Wesleyan’s chief financial officer, said Wesleyan also will remain “gun free.”

“We want to maintain safety and be a safe haven for learning,” Nash said.

Making preparations

Campus officials at all four colleges said the schools have made a point to talk about the new campus carry law — and whether it applies at their school — during orientation sessions this summer.

At Fort Valley State, additional informational forums have been held.

Middle Georgia State also has required faculty and staff to undergo mandatory training so they can help answer questions posed by students and the community. The school has posted detailed information about the new law online at http://www.mga.edu/police/campus-carry.aspx.

At Fort Valley State, police jobs that had remained vacant have been filled to ensure “a greater presence of security on campus and make sure everyone feels good and safe,” Morgan said.

Dispatchers at both schools have received additional training so they can ask more questions in case someone reports a gun on campus to ensure officers have the information they need.

Those questions include whether the person is brandishing the gun and what they’re doing with it, Morgan said.

“It may not necessarily be a violation of the law, whereas in the past it was,” Douglas said.

No incidents stemming from the new law have been reported at Fort Valley State or Middle Georgia State so far, although the law went into effect while far fewer students were on campus taking summer classes, the chiefs say.

“I was just astounded at how smoothly it went,” Morgan said. “It was very quiet. … People aren’t freaking out.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Your college student’s classmate may be carrying a gun into the lecture hall this fall."