Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on concealed carry laws in Missouri.

By STEVEN SPEARS

News Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Competing bills have been introduced in the Missouri Senate that could make concealed carry of a firearm legal on campus.

Senate bills 589 and 731 were discussed Wednesday, Jan. 27, at a Senate transportation committee hearing.

The current conceal and carry laws in Missouri allow those with concealed carry weapons permits to carry concealed firearms on their person or in their vehicle throughout the state. There are 17 exceptions written into the law – higher education institutions being one of them.

Senate bill 589, sponsored by state Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, would remove higher education institutions as an exemption to the concealed carry laws currently in place, allowing those with permits to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. Senate bill 731, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-District 18, would also remove the exemption but additionally provides a process for institutions of higher education to apply for exemption if certain requirements are met.

After five calls to Munzlinger, he refused to do an interview until there are new updates on SB 731.

University of Central Missouri President Chuck Ambrose said the pending legislation is a concern for the UCM campus.

“(The bills are) really an attempt to think about guns in a way that helps combat gun violence rather than an ideological kind of who should be able to carry,” Ambrose said during a meeting with local media. “But at the same time, there are a lot of challenges on college campuses with mental health, suicide, alcohol, that guns don’t have a place here.

“I have had many more correspondence and interaction with faculty and staff who say, and it actually scares them to think that guns would be allowed, and even some to go as far as to say, ‘If guns are allowed, I’m not going to be here.’ And I, just on a personal level, I would have personal concern.”

Dixon said SB 589 is really about campus safety, citing the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Umpqua Community College in Oregon last year.

“Discussing this with a number of professors, security guards and students, we felt like it was important to at least give people … if they had already gone through the process of becoming permitted and doing the training, at least give them the same right to defend their life if a gun is put to their head,” Dixon said in a phone interview. “Right now, they have it on the one side of the street, but they don’t on a campus.”

Ambrose said the Missouri gun debate mirrors the national conversation.

“It’s a very complex issue, no question about it,” Ambrose said. “And my personal opinion doesn’t matter much but the safety of our students and faculty and staff are absolutely primary.”

Senate bill 731 would require the Missouri Department of Public Safety to grant universities that meet certain security requirements an exemption to the concealed carry law. The exemption would ban concealed carry on qualifying campuses.

To meet those requirements, institutions would have to place permanent security personnel and electronic weapons screening devices at each entrance to any building on campus grounds. The security personnel would have to screen each person entering the building for weapons and take possession of any weapons found while the carrier is in the building.

In a fiscal note to the Missouri Committee on Legislative Research Oversight Division, UCM reported that SB 731 would have a significant fiscal impact on the university with an estimated one-time equipment cost of $554,400 and an annual personnel expense of nearly $35.2 million.

Scott Rhoad, director of public safety at UCM, said he doesn’t believe the requirements are fiscally possible.

“We are talking millions and millions and millions of dollars every year that could be utilized for other purposes,” Rhoad said. “I don’t see any way that a state university could do that and still be fiscally responsible with their funding. Now, would UCM go to that level? I would like to say yes. Because, in my personal opinion, an institution of higher education is not a place that we need concealed weapons or, really, weapons.”

Ambrose said the university is committed to improving its video surveillance presence to increase campus security in general but won’t rule out additional improvements.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Ambrose said. “I think we’ll try to do as much of (the security improvements) as we possibly can before we allow guns on campus … I think there’s a lot that we can do to enhance security without having to move to conceal and carry.”

Leah Wankum contributed to this report.