Bill Filed to Allow Campus Carry at Florida Colleges

The state of Florida has some gun control laws that really need to go away. Most states that have a form of permitless carry, for example, don’t have three-day waiting periods for gun sales, just to name one example.

But a lot of lawmakers espouse pro-gun messages, which means that at least some of those laws can and probably will come down sooner or later.

I just didn’t expect to see this pop up before some of them were gone.

Brevard County Republican state Sen. Randy Fine has filed legislation (SB 814) that would extend concealed carry rights to Florida colleges and universities.

The state lawmaker — now running for a seat in Congress — has said over the past year that such legislation is necessary to protect students from “on-campus Muslim terror.”

The bill language says that a person “may carry a firearm on the property of any college or university, including, but not limited to, any dormitory or residence hall owned or operated by a college or university, and in any other location he or she is legally authorized to do so.”

The measure also says that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) may authorize a college or university, while hosting or sponsoring a sporting event, to designate a campus facility or area as a sensitive location in which possession of a concealed weapon is prohibited. To receive such authorization, the school must submit a security plan to the FDLE for approval.

Fine says that he determined to file the bill after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, in light of the “many universities around the country refusing to protect their students from on-campus Muslim terror.”

Now, Fine does go on to talk about how “[t]here is no magic force field that keeps criminals from carrying a gun onto campus” and this measure would allow students to exercise their rights just as they would off campus.

But I really wish he wasn’t so focused on Islamic terrorism.

Why? Because October 7th was beyond terrible, but it wasn’t just some attack on a college campus. It was an invasion of the nation of Israel by hostile forces that slaughtered people in job lots simply because they were there. It’s a black swan event that we may never see again in our lifetime.

While Islamic terror attacks of lesser intensity are more common, I think Fine would have been better off invoking things like Virginia Tech, Michigan State, and even the shooting at FSU in 2014 that injured three people. These are far more common and probably would leave one less open to attack.

That said, regardless of Fine’s reason for introducing the measure, I fully support it and hope it comes to pass. Based on some of the stuff I’ve seen from senior Republicans in the Sunshine State, though, I’m skeptical it will. I sincerely hope I’m wrong, and not just because I think it would be hilarious for Florida to get campus carry before getting open carry.

But I’d much prefer them to get open carry to me getting a good belly laugh at the absurdity of things.

And it doesn’t really matter one bit why Fine introduced it. An attack is an attack and an armed citizen could stop it. End of story.