By Elizabeth Crisp
A Mississippi resident who receives a concealed carry permit and takes an eight-hour course can now carry a gun on college campuses, in bars and in courthouses.
As of this summer, Wyoming residents need
no permits for concealed weapons. And in Indiana, private businesses
must allow employees to keep firearms in their vehicles on company
property.
Those and other recent changes on
the state level represent a growing shift toward loosening state gun
regulations, according to University of Chicago professor Jens Ludwig.
"When
you look across the states, they are definitely moving in the direction
of allowing concealed weapons in more locations," Ludwig says.
Supporters of the trend see it as a boost for gun rights. The National Rifle Association tracks the legislation online and has praised the new state laws.
Others say the trend could pose a threat to public safety.
"The
gun lobby won't stop," says Brian Malte, of the Washington, D.C.-based
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Malte described the way he sees
the trend for the past 10 years: guns "anytime, any place and for
anyone."
Proponents of the shift say they are just trying to give law-abiding citizens a way to protect themselves.
"Somebody
who's disturbed or a crook — they're not going to care (if it's illegal
to carry a gun in certain locations)," says Mississippi state Rep. Greg
Snowden, a Republican who was one of three authors of an amendment that
paved the way for the new policy here.
Alaska,
Arizona and Vermont, like Wyoming, do not require permits for concealed
guns, according to the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action.
Lawmakers
in Colorado and Utah made similar proposals, but those bills died
during the states' most recent legislative sessions, legislative records
show.
Florida this year passed a law that
would prevent pediatricians from asking about guns in patients' homes,
according to the NRA legislation tracker. A federal judge has
temporarily blocked the measure. Doctors found in violation would have
lost their medical licenses and faced fines of up to $10,000, according
to the law that was passed.
University of
Mississippi Police Chief Calvin Sellers says he supports the right to
own firearms, but he still thinks Mississippi's newest policy could be a
"bad law."
"I just don't like the idea of people having firearms in a classroom," he says.
There have been several high-profile campus shootings in recent years, most notably the 2007 Virginia Tech
shooting that killed 33 people and injured 25, and the shooting there
earlier this month in which a campus police officer was killed by a
gunman who subsequently killed himself.
Aside from the high-profile cases, David Burnett,
spokesman for a national student-led group that supports concealed
carry laws for college campuses, says he thinks allowing students to
carry guns can help in situations of sexual assault, armed robbery or
other crimes.
"This isn't just about the rare college shooting incidents," he says.
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