Professor: Opponents must fight renewed effort for guns on campus

Protesters against campus carry finish their march at the University of Georgia arch. Demonstrators urged Gov. Nathan Deal to veto this year’s campus carry bill, which would allow guns on parts of campus. Deal did veto the bill, but new campus gun legislation may be coming. TAYLOR CARPENTER / TAYLOR.CARPENTER@AJC.COM

Protesters against campus carry finish their march at the University of Georgia arch. Demonstrators urged Gov. Nathan Deal to veto this year’s campus carry bill, which would allow guns on parts of campus. Deal did veto the bill, but new campus gun legislation may be coming. TAYLOR CARPENTER / TAYLOR.CARPENTER@AJC.COM

With Georgia lawmakers planning another try at a law allowing guns on public college campuses, a University of North Georgia professor urges opponents to rally against the effort.

Opposition and concerns over safety led Gov. Nathan Deal to veto campus carry earlier this year, but House Speaker David Ralston says a revised bill may be coming in January. In a guest column, professor Matthew Boedy urges opponents to again speak out against firearms on campus.

“I hope when these legislators come to my campus they will see it is one of the safest places in this state, like other campuses. And colleges are safe not merely because our police are well-trained, well-funded, and serve bravely. It is because higher education teaches us how to disarm our quarrels before they reach the level of violence. It teaches us how to argue without being threatening. It teaches us how to seek justice broadly, not impose it singularly through the barrel of a gun,” Boedy writes in the AJC Get Schooled blog.

To read more, go to the Get Schooled blog.