Committee OKs bill allowing concealed guns on college campuses

Staff and wire reports

Published Wednesday, May 27, 2015 | 9:17 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, May 27, 2015 | 11 a.m.

CARSON CITY — On a party-line vote, the Assembly Judiciary Committee today approved a bill to allow licensed people to carry concealed guns at public universities and community colleges in Nevada.

The proposal, which has drawn staunch opposition from student groups and the Nevada System of Higher Education, now goes to the Assembly after being supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats on the committee.

At today's hearing, students opposed to the measure filled the committee room to offer dissenting testimony. But Ira Hansen, the Republican chairman of the committee, didn’t allow testimony on the bill, saying similar measures have already been heard by lawmakers.

Led by Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, some Republicans have pressed for the so-called "campus carry" bill this session.

After the Republican-controlled Senate snuffed out a version of the bill without a hearing, Republican Assemblyman James Oscarson presented the new bill, AB 487, to the Assembly Judiciary Committee during a short hearing on Tuesday.

Opponents contend the bill would make colleges more dangerous and argue that institutions should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to allow concealed firearms on their campuses.

Oscarson was among a group of Assembly Republicans who helped defeat an amendment last week adding the campus provisions to a separate Senate bill on concealed carry, SB 175. Oscarson said he wanted to keep the measures separate to give both a better chance of passing.

In the Senate, Republican Ben Kieckhefer is sponsoring a measure about concealed weapons on campus, SB 350. That bill has been marked as exempt from committee deadlines.

Lawmakers are confident the latest version of the campus-carry bill will get a hearing in the Senate.

“We have been assured of a hearing,” Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, R-Minden, said via Twitter last week. “Can’t do more than that for now.”

Las Vegas Sun reporters Cy Ryan and Kyle Roerink and the Associated Press contributed to this report.