House backs Tasers for Georgia college students a day after gun vote

The Capitol Insider is your guide to what’s happening under the Gold Dome.

To subscribe, visit: www.ajc.com/newsletters/subscriptions. Log in or create a free account, then check the box next to "Capitol Insider" and be smarter every single day.

College students and staff could defend themselves on campus with Tasers and stun guns under a measure approved Tuesday by the Georgia House just a day after the chamber voted to legalize guns for that use, too.

Some at the Capitol have dubbed House Bill 792 "campus carry lite" because it would legalize carrying what are formally called electroshock weapons onto the state's public university and college campuses.

But state Rep. Buzz Brockway, R-Lawrenceville, the bill's author, said he wanted to offer a serious alternative for those who may not be comfortable using a lethal weapon. The idea, Brockway said, came from conversations he had over the summer with students worried about what they were and were not allowed to do on campus to increase their own safety.

“This is just another option,” Brockway said. “I support campus carry, but even if campus carry becomes legal, not everybody is going to want to carry a gun.”

Unlike the gun legislation (House Bill 859), however, Brockway's bill would set no age limit for using electroshock weapons on campus. It also doesn't have the strict requirements Georgia and federal officials have in place for buying guns and applying for "concealed carry" gun permits — something that comes into play with the proposal to allow guns on campus.

"Any student who is dual-enrolled in high school and college, 13- or 14-year-olds, will now be allowed to carry a stun gun on a college campus," House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, said in an exchange with Brockway during the floor debate. HB 792 passed on a party line 117-46 vote, but not before Brockway said he would be open to adding age limits as the bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

“It gets down to this: I trust that college students will be able to protect themselves and be able to use them wisely,” Brockway said of the electroshock weapons. “This is a nonlethal device. If somebody is zapping somebody just for fun, there are other laws that deal with that. I think you could classify that as assault.”

Earlier Tuesday, HB 859 — the gun bill — was read for the first time in the Senate and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is too early to tell, however, when it will receive a committee hearing or if any changes will be made to the bill.