IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL ARKANSAS FACULTY, STAFF, AND PARENTS!
HB 1077 (concealed carry for licensed faculty and staff on Arkansas public college and university campuses) is scheduled to be heard tomorrow morning (Thursday, February 5, 2015) in the Arkansas House Education Committee. This bill is extremely important because it removes our Boards of Trustees’ ability to opt out of the current law that makes faculty-and-staff carry optional.
This bill was drafted, in my opinion, specifically to prohibit our Boards, who twice opted out of the law, from governing on this particular issue.
So it represents precisely the kind of governmental overreach that I believe all of us interested in higher education—as well as in fair, representational government—must resist.
Therefore it is important that all of us voice our opinions, wherever they may fall, on this matter.
My current information is that Representatives Deffenbaugh, Douglas, Gray, Lampkin, and Ratliff are listening. Below you will find their full information.
Please take the time to let these elected officials know where you stand on this vital issue.
If you wish to visit the full Committee page, you can do so here.
Gary Deffenbaugh (R., District 79 )
Charlotte Douglas (R., District 75)
Michael John Gray (D., District 47)
Sheilla E. Lampkin (D., District 9)
James Ratliff (D., District 60)
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
—Sidney Burris, Professor, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville