CARSON CITY — Nevada Assembly members have again approved a hot-button bill allowing concealed weapon permit holders to bring firearms onto college campuses.
Assembly members voted 26-16 to approve AB487 on Friday. The measure now moves to the Senate.
Republicans have made several efforts to approve so-called "campus carry" measure this session, which would allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry concealed guns on college campuses and store firearms in locked cars.
Republican Assemblyman Ira Hansen said "horror stories" about campus carry were overblown by "uninformed young people," and stressed that other states like Utah with similar laws haven't had any issues with allowing licensed people to bring concealed guns on college campuses.
"Somehow in this case, we're supposed to say your constitutional rights end at the door of a government owned institution," he said.
Numerous student groups and the Nevada System of Higher Education have strongly opposed the measure, and Assembly Democrats said that the Legislature was ignoring students and faculty in passing the bill.
"Our students matter, our education professionals matter, and we have got to start listening to our constituents," Democratic Assemblyman Nelson Araujo said.
A separate Assembly bill, AB148, would have enacted similar language but died without a hearing in the Senate earlier in May after passing the Assembly. Republican Sen. Greg Brower said he didn't schedule a hearing on the bill because it didn't have enough support to pass the Senate.
Assemblyman Ira Hansen also attempted to amend in the campus carry language to an omnibus gun bill, SB175, but the amendment was defeated when a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to shoot down the measure
AB487 is sponsored by a handful of Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat the "campus carry" amendment. Republican Assemblyman James Oscarson said he wanted to pass a clean "campus carry" bill and feared that amending it into SB175 would kill the bill itself.
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