Governor Vetoes Controversial Campus Carry Bill

Georgia College students will not be able to carry guns on campus.

On Tuesday, Governor Nathan Deal vetoed a bill that would have allowed concealed handguns on college campuses.

Deal offered a lengthy, written veto message, citing legal precedents and even harking back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1824, and their stance opposing guns on the University of Virginia campus.

He also referred to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion by recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.

Deal said Scalia wrote that schools and government buildings should be considered “sensitive places” under the Second Amendment.

The bill would have allowed anyone 21 and over to carry a concealed handgun with the proper permit on a public college or university campus.

The veto decision came weeks after Deal, who is in his second and final term, rejected a bill shielding opponents of gay marriage.

That measure was backed by conservative groups but blasted by more than 500 Georgia companies as discriminatory.

The powerful governing board of the University System of Georgia opposed the so-called “campus carry” measure.

All 29 public university and college presidents, along with their police chiefs, also said they opposed the bill.

The National Rifle Association was one of the premier lobbying groups behind the bill, and voiced its disapproval of the veto in a statement Tuesday.

NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said the measure would have made Georgia campuses safer for Deal’s constituents.