A new bill in Florida that has already cleared the Florida House would allow professors and other staffers at public universities to carry concealed weapons in case of an emergency.
Opponents of the bill cite all of the usual reasons for doing so, but having armed staff on college campuses would be smart.
This has a very good chance of passing because first, we’re talking about Florida, but also because of the horrific shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island a few months back.
The College Fix reports:
Florida bill would train professors to carry guns for campus emergencies
A bill that recently passed the Florida House would allow professors and staff at public universities to carry concealed weapons on campus – the expansion of a security program already in place in k-12 schools across the state.
However, some faculty unions and student groups are speaking out against the “School Safety” bill, House Bill 757, with one saying it could create a dangerous “Wild West” situation on campuses, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
“We are the ones who will have to walk around campus every day wondering which staff member is armed and if a split-second decision will turn our hallways into the Wild West,” Florida A&M student De’jah Charles told the newspaper.
“This bill doesn’t make us safer. It makes our campus an unpredictable space where the threat of violence is always part of the curriculum,” Charles said. She is a member of the university Students Demand Action chapter, a gun control group.
The state House passed the bill last week in a 83-25 vote, and sent it to the Senate where it also appears likely to pass, according to the Democrat.
If enacted, the bill would expand Florida’s “Guardian Program” to public colleges and universities by allowing their presidents to designate faculty and staff to be trained to carry concealed firearms on campus and respond to emergency situations. It also instructs local sheriffs to provide firearms training to these individuals.
The bill is being sponsored by Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman.
She commented to the Pensacola News Journal:
Salzman was at Florida State University in Tallahassee on April 17, 2025, when 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner opened fire at the Student Union, killing two people and injuring six others.
As a student and a lawmaker in those terrifying moments, she said the experience left her looking for solutions to help make college students safer.
“I was sitting in my office when the shooting took place, and I was in group text messages with other students where they were sending videos of the assailant,” Salzman recalled. “They were saying, ‘Oh, I’m not on campus. I’m in this building. We’re on lockdown.’ And then afterwards they were like, ‘What are we going to do about it?’”
Schools should be guarded by men with guns. It’s the most logical way to protect our students.
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