Professors' Suit Targets Ga. Campus Carry Law

Gov. Nathan Deal. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

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.

The complaint names Deal and Carr in their individual capacities and was filed on behalf of tenured professors from the University of Georgia, Valdosta State University and Georgia Southwestern University. The filing attorneys, Jones Day partner Peter Canfield and associates Jennifer Bunting-Graden, Brian Lea and Charlotte Taylor, were not immediately available for comment.

“Whether firearms on campuses help or hinder the cause of creating a safe and secure learning environment is, to be sure, a subject of intense debate. Reasonable minds can and do differ on this issue, but this case is not about who is right,” the suit said. “Rather, it is about which entity decides.”

The complaint notes that, when Deal vetoed similar campus-carry legislation last year, he acknowledge that “this question of education policy is therefore for the Board to resolve, in conjunction with the faculties to which it has delegated responsibility for governance of university system institutions.”

The Board of Regents consistently opposed the campus carry legislation, and the suit cites the professors' concerns for student safety, suicide prevention and having a nonthreatening learning environment.

UGA geography professor John Knox's classes, which include atmospheric and climate science, “often involve vigorous debate,” and he has “had encounters with students who have acted out in response to controversial topics.”

“He is also concerned that allowing guns on campus will lead to an increased number of suicides,” and about the dangers to dual-enrolled high school students taking college courses with guns present on campus.

Valdosta State geography professor Michael Noll's classes also involve vigorous debate on topics such as Rwanda, the Holocaust and Jim Crow laws. “Over the years, he has encountered emotionally and psychologically distressed students,” and had one student who committed suicide.

UGA professor emeritus James Porter, who teaches ecology and marine science and is the author of “Opposing Points of View in Environmental Science,” said the “vigorous debate he seeks to foster in his classroom is being and will continue to be negatively affected by the presence of guns in his classroom.”

More immediate concerns are raised by Georgia Southwestern's Laurel Robinson, chair of the visual arts department, whose studios include furnaces, chemicals, gas tanks and a plasma cutter that can reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Accidental or purposeful discharge of a gun inside the sculpture and glass-blowing studios where large tanks of compressed gas are present could cause a dangerous explosion,” the complaint said. Even the “sparks and heat from the furnace and other equipment make the studio a dangerous environment for firearms and munitions.”

Valdosta State philosophy and religious studies professor Aristotelis Santas has also lost a student to suicide, according to the lawsuit. His classes are on “difficult topics such as race, sexuality and gender,” and he had to intervene physically when a student climbed on a table and made “aggressive comment and gestures” toward another.

UGA microbiology professor William Whitman's lab is loaded with computers, hazardous chemicals, radioisotopes and compressed gas tanks, and an “accidental or purposeful discharge of a gun” could cause an explosion with disastrous results, according to the complaint.

The one-count complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and asks the court to declare the campus carry law unconstitutional and, to the extent that they infringe on the regents' authority to set firearms policy on Georgia campuses, the right to carry and preemption statutes.”

Contact Greg Land at [email protected]. On Twitter: @GregLand1

Gov. Nathan Deal. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

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.

The complaint names Deal and Carr in their individual capacities and was filed on behalf of tenured professors from the University of Georgia, Valdosta State University and Georgia Southwestern University. The filing attorneys, Jones Day partner Peter Canfield and associates Jennifer Bunting-Graden, Brian Lea and Charlotte Taylor, were not immediately available for comment.