A half-dozen professors from three Georgia universities have sued Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Chris Carr over claims Georgia's campus carry bill violates the state's constitution.

The hotly debated legislation allowing licensed gun owners to carry firearms nearly anywhere on state college and university campuses, which was passed and signed into law earlier this year, allegedly violates the constitutional mandate that the state Board of Regents retains sole authority over the “government, control, and management of the University System of Georgia.”

The campus-carry bill in conjunction with the “right to carry law” allowing guns to be carried anywhere in the state not specifically prohibited, and the “preemption provision,” which bars any city, county or the political subdivision from regulating guns, work to “usurp the Board of Regents' constitutionally conferred, exclusive authority” to control Georgia campuses.