ATLANTA — Georgia’s Republican governor vetoed a bill Tuesday allowing concealed handguns on college campuses, rejecting the proposal that a legislature controlled by his own party had easily approved in an election year.
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 Gov. Nathan 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.
Deal’s decision to kill the gun bill isn’t a complete surprise. After it passed the legislature, he asked members to pass follow-up bills addressing concerns about access to on-campus daycare centers, spaces where high schools students can take college-level courses and where disciplinary hearings are held. They declined, saying the original bill was carefully considered.
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.
“From the early days of our nation and state, colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed,” Deal said. “To depart from such time honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said he was disappointed by his fellow Republican’s veto, but added that it’s not the end of the discussion.
