Campus carry gun bill dies for Nevada legislative session
CARSON CITY — A bill to allow those with concealed weapons permits to take their weapons onto the state’s college campuses is dead for the 2013 session, the bill’s sponsor said Friday.
Assembly Bill 143, called the “campus carry” bill, was not on the Assembly Judiciary Committee agenda for Friday, the last day for many bills to win approval in committee or die.
Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, a strong Second Amendment proponent, said her bill won’t come up for a vote even though she said there are enough votes on the committee to pass it out.
Currently, concealed weapons are prohibited on campuses unless an individual obtains permission from the college president. Permission is rarely granted.
Fiore called the decision not to call for a vote on the bill a partisan one, and said she will work to help more Republicans win Assembly seats in the 2014 election to give it a better chance at passage.
“The death of campus carry is obviously a partisan decision which motivates me to increase our Republican influence,” Fiore said.
“It would have been a different story if the anti-gun bills were off the table as well as pro-gun bills, but that doesn’t seem to be the makeup here,” she said.
Fiore said she will pursue the legislation again in the 2015 session.
The bill as originally proposed would have allowed those with permits to carry their weapons on campuses any time of day. She proposed an amendment at a recent hearing on the bill to allow for the carrying of weapons in the evenings only. Only those age 21 and older can have concealed weapons permits.
The measure was opposed by officials with the Nevada System of Higher Education, faculty and university system police officials.
It is the second time the bill has failed to see a vote in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. A similar measure passed by the state Senate in the 2011 session did not come up for a vote in the committee either.
Fiore said it is an issue of safety, particularly for women who attend classes in the evening. Students sometimes have to park off campus and walk quite a distance without any security, she said.
Amanda Collins, a concealed weapons permit holder who was unarmed when she was raped by James Biela in a University of Nevada, Reno parking garage in 2007, testified for the bill.
Collins said she probably would not have been able to stop the attack but might have been able to defend herself at some point and possible prevent two other later rapes, with one involving a murder, committed by Biela. He was arrested in 2008 and later sentenced to death.
Collins made an appearance at the committee hearing work session, sitting in the audience to watch as an effort was made to put the item on the agenda for discussion.
She sobbed quietly when the request was rejected by Judiciary Chairman Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas.
Frierson said Fiore did not have the votes to get the bill out of committee.
“This is an emotional, heart-wrenching issue with valid points on all sides, but we have a limited amount of time to get some bills done and I think that it’s my job as chair to process the bills we can process and use the time we have as efficiently as I can,” he said.
Collins said the failure to get a vote is frustrating but that she will continue to push the measure in the Nevada Legislature.
“I’ve been able to effectively change legislation in other states, I just for some reason can’t manage to do it in my own,” she said.
“It’s a shame one man can thwart legislation,” said Collins’ father, Thomas Collins.
Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.
