This story was initially printed by Stateline.

In not less than six statehouses this yr, lawmakers are revisiting a long-running debate over whether or not weapons must be allowed on school campuses.

Republican lawmakers in Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming have launched payments that might permit college students, employees or guests with hid carry permits — and in some circumstances, with out permits — to deliver firearms onto public school campuses.

It’s nonetheless unlawful in Louisiana to hold firearms on college and school property, that are thought-about “firearm-free zones.” However Home Invoice 99, proposed for the 2026 legislative session, would permit lawfully permitted adults over the age of 18 to hold firearms on the campuses of public universities or schools that obtain state funding.

The bar on enacting firearms bans would come with any Louisiana school or college that accepts a scholar who’s a recipient of economic help primarily based on an Alternative, Efficiency, Honors, or TOPS-Tech Award.

The measure would apply to college students, school, employees, contractors and guests. Since July 2024, the state has allowed anybody 18 or older to hold a hid firearm with out a allow in different places.

“It’s the intent of the legislature to affirm that the suitable to maintain and bear arms is a basic proper protected by the Second Modification to america,” reads the proposed regulation, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, a Republican from Oil Metropolis, in Caddo Parish.

“We are able to belief folks with their rights and the power to be accountable with them greater than I believe some folks give them credit score for,” McCormick informed Stateline. “I see it making campuses extra secure.”

The invoice was withdrawn on Monday however might resurface with amendments. The laws’s preliminary restrictions included prohibiting firearms in places already restricted underneath federal regulation, throughout disciplinary or administrative hearings, in medical or psychological well being amenities and at occasions with safety screenings. It could additionally stop the state’s increased training governing boards or particular person establishments from imposing stricter guidelines than state regulation.

Within the face of accelerating campus violence, will weapons make campuses extra secure or much less?
Supporters say the proposals would permit folks to defend themselves throughout emergencies. Opponents argue they may make campuses much less secure and improve the danger of unintentional or impulsive violence.

The push comes amid one other yr of intense debate over gun coverage in state legislatures, the place lawmakers are advancing sharply totally different measures.

And it comes as school campuses proceed to grapple with the specter of gun violence.

On March 12, a gunman opened fireplace inside a classroom at Previous Dominion College in Norfolk, Virginia, killing one particular person and injuring two others earlier than ROTC college students fought again. One of many college students stabbed the gunman, killing him, in accordance with regulation enforcement officers.

Virginia regulation presently prohibits firearms on public school and college campuses. The FBI is investigating the assault as a potential act of terrorism.

The Previous Dominion College assault was the latest of 17 lethal shootings on school campuses nationwide since 1966, in accordance with Stateline analysis.

Greater than half of the states prohibit firearms on public schools and universities. In some states, particular person establishments might determine whether or not to permit weapons on campus.

Greater than a dozen states already permit firearms on school campuses

At the least 14 states presently permit firearms on public school campuses, although some prohibit them to individuals who have a sound carry license.

Campus-carry proposals are a part of a broader push by gun rights advocates to dismantle gun-free zones or different designated “delicate locations,” akin to colleges, hospitals, locations of worship or authorities buildings. Advocates are also pushing for legal guidelines that permit folks to hold weapons with out having to first get permits, which advocates name “constitutional carry.”

“It’s positively together with the political combat to develop constitutional carry,” stated Chris Stone, the director of state and native affairs for Gun House owners of America, one of many nation’s largest gun advocacy teams.

Supporters usually argue that gun-free zones might entice crime and make colleges or different places extra probably targets for mass shootings. Additionally they contend that disarming people limits their potential to defend themselves.

Some gun rights advocates cite analysis by economist John Lott, who leads the Crime Prevention Analysis Heart, suggesting that about 82% of mass shootings occurred in gun-free zones between 1998 and 2025.

“All you do by making a gun-free zone is making a magnet — simply learn the diaries and manifestos. All you do is create a magnet for individuals who need to go and kill folks,” Lott, who additionally served as a senior adviser for analysis and statistics on the U.S. Division of Justice in the course of the first Trump administration, informed Stateline.

However some consultants say the info on whether or not gun-free zones improve violent crime is inconclusive.

A 2024 examine printed within the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Regional Well being discovered that energetic shootings have been 62.5% much less prone to happen in gun-free institutions than in locations that permit firearms, primarily based on an evaluation of 150 U.S. active-shooting places and 150 related management websites from 2014-2020.

Some Second Modification consultants say states retain large flexibility to manage weapons on school campuses, but the most important unresolved authorized questions contain the “the place” of campus gun bans — how far gun-free college zones can stretch past lecture rooms into areas akin to scholar housing, parking tons and different college‑owned property.

“It’s clear that there’s a energy to ban weapons on college grounds, and the true query is simply how broad that energy is,” stated Joseph Blocher, a regulation professor at Duke College. Blocher is the co-founder and college director of Duke’s Heart for Firearms Legislation.

Proposed measures in different states

The campus-carry proposals thought-about this yr fluctuate broadly.

In Wyoming, lawmakers debated a measure that might have allowed anybody eligible underneath the state’s permitless, or “constitutional carry,” regulation to hold hid firearms on school campuses. The proposal didn’t move; underneath present regulation, solely folks with a state-issued hid carry allow might keep it up campuses.

Lawmakers authorised a separate measure, nonetheless, which was signed into regulation earlier this month by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon. The brand new regulation, which takes impact in July, lowers the minimal age for a hid carry allow from 21 to 18 and removes the requirement that candidates underneath 21 get hold of a discretionary suggestion from their native sheriff.

“When the nice guys are armed, the unhealthy guys don’t like exhibiting up,” stated Wyoming state Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, a Republican, who sponsored each measures.

When the nice guys are armed, the unhealthy guys don’t like exhibiting up.

– Wyoming Republican state Rep. Jeremy Haroldson

In New Hampshire, lawmakers are weighing laws that might prohibit public schools and universities from banning or regulating the possession or carrying of firearms and nonlethal weapons. The measure handed the Home earlier this yr and is now into consideration within the Senate.

In South Dakota, the Home Training Committee rejected a proposal that might have eliminated the requirement that people maintain an enhanced hid carry allow to hold on public college and technical school campuses ruled by the South Dakota Board of Regents. Below present regulation, solely folks with enhanced permits might keep it up these campuses.

In Utah, following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley College final September, lawmakers handed a invoice that might ban open carry whereas permitting eligible folks to hold hid with out a allow.

The measure now awaits motion from Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and would take impact Might 6 if signed.

Arming school and employees

In the meantime, lower than a yr after a gunman opened fireplace on the campus of Florida State College, killing two folks and injuring six others, state lawmakers authorised laws that might permit professors and different staff designated by college presidents to hold firearms on public school and college campuses. Each chambers of the legislature handed the invoice, and it’ll quickly make it to GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis for consideration.

The measure would develop the state’s voluntary Faculty Guardian Program — created for Ok-12 colleges after the 2018 taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Florida — to increased training. School and employees who volunteer and full specialised coaching might be approved to hold weapons to reply to potential energetic shooter conditions.

This system would supply 144 hours of coaching, in contrast with the 770 hours required for Florida regulation enforcement officers.

Some opponents say the required coaching falls in need of regulation enforcement requirements and that key insurance policies — together with use-of-force thresholds, weapon sorts and storage, and coordination with police — stay unclear. Critics even have raised issues about legal responsibility, compensation for guardians, and the way efficient handguns can be on open campuses.

“If I might simply ask one factor of lawmakers, it might be, ‘Let’s take a pause on this. Let’s readdress what’s on this invoice,’” stated Tom Hixon, who sits on the Everytown Veteran Advisory Council and beforehand served as a Marine. Everytown for Gun Security advocates for stricter gun legal guidelines.

Tom’s father, Chris Hixon, an athletic director and a Navy veteran, was killed whereas attempting to cease the Parkland shooter. Florida’s Ok-12 guardian program was renamed in his honor, alongside safety guard Aaron Feis and instructor Scott Beigel.

“If we’re useless set on passing this, let’s be sure that we’re passing it with all the correct inclusions, safeguards, accountability, coaching, security,” Hixon stated.

The invoice additionally would require schools and universities to conduct risk assessments, set up threat-management groups, and supply coaching for school to determine behavioral warning indicators.

“We wouldn’t ask medical doctors to arm themselves within the occasion of a taking pictures at a hospital. We wouldn’t ask fast-food staff to arm themselves in conditions the place a shooter would possibly come by way of the drive-thru. However we’re anticipating our professors to be ready to do one thing like that,” stated Andres Cubillos, a graduate scholar at Florida State College and volunteer with College students Demand Motion, a gun management advocacy group.

Campus-carry motion

The fashionable push for campus carry legal guidelines started greater than 20 years in the past. Utah turned the primary state to permit hid firearms on public school campuses statewide in 2004.

Momentum grew within the following decade, notably after high-profile college shootings and the enlargement of permitless and hid carry legal guidelines throughout the nation.

“These actions are all very intricately linked to 1 one other within the means of restoring the Second Modification,” stated Stone, of Gun House owners of America.

At the least 29 states have expanded entry to firearms by adopting permitless carry legal guidelines.

“It’s completely true that guidelines about the place weapons will be carried intersect with guidelines about who will get to hold them,” stated Blocher, the Duke College regulation professor. “It’s also the case that the states which might be deregulating in a single space are inclined to decontrol within the different as nicely.”

Authorized debates

The U.S. Supreme Court docket has lengthy advised that governments can bar weapons in sure places — together with colleges and authorities buildings — nevertheless it has provided little steerage on how far these gun-free zones can stretch throughout right now’s sprawling school campuses.

“It’s honest to say that states and universities nonetheless have broad authority to make choices about weapons on campus, to manage them or to decontrol them,” Blocher stated.

The Supreme Court docket’s 2022 choice in New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation v. Bruen stated that trendy gun legal guidelines should align with the nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation.

Bruen additionally restricted the extent to which states can prohibit who might carry weapons in public, which has shifted some authorized debates to give attention to the place weapons will be carried.

Courts usually settle for that colleges fall throughout the class of “delicate locations,” Blocher stated, however the doctrine continues to be underdeveloped: Judges have stated far much less about the right way to deal with off-campus housing, distant analysis websites or different college properties.

“It’s the class that we sort of have the least steerage on — what places are OK to limit weapons in, and why,” he stated.

Stateline reporter Amanda Watford will be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

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