By Milan Simonich
Deming Headlight
SANTA FE — Adults with a permit can carry a concealed handgun in the state Capitol, but not on a bus or in a school.
State Rep. Zachary Cook says the restrictions are arbitrary and contrary to the U.S. Constitution.
So Cook, R-Ruidoso, said he will introduce a bill next week to broaden the number of places where permit-holders can carry concealed handguns.
They would include K-through-12 schools, colleges and universities, buses, licensed liquor establishments, and state parks and recreation areas.
Cook said he had hoped to introduce the measure Thursday, but spent part of the day researching whether the provision for allowing guns in elementary and high schools conflicted with federal law. He said it does not because any applicants for a concealed-carry permit must be at least 21.
His bill takes a stand for those he called “law-abiding citizens.”
“This is a way to promote and acknowledge our constitutional rights,” said Cook, a lawyer. “The point is to allow people to protect themselves.”
Criminals who care nothing about laws carry weapons everywhere they go, he said. This means the existing system gives lawbreakers an advantage over a professor walking to her car in a campus lot or a passenger on a bus, he said.
Jaime Chavez, police chief at New Mexico State University, said he liked the bill, except for the provision that would allow guns in bars and restaurants that serve liquor.
“Alcohol and guns are always a bad mix,” he said.
But for the New Mexico State campus, where the average age of a student is 28, he said he had no qualms about legalizing handguns.
“Allowing people to carry on school grounds generally makes those places safer,” Chavez said in an interview.
He said many people envision 30 students packing pistols in a classroom when they hear about concealed handguns on campus.
“That just is not going to happen,” he said, citing the time, cost and commitment needed to obtain a carry permit.
Chavez said the process is rigorous enough to make him confident about those who qualify.
“I’m the instructor who trained the governor for her concealed-carry permit,” he said of Susana Martinez.
Andy Pelosi, director of the New York-based Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, said many university police chiefs disagree with Chavez and see weapons as more a danger than a deterrent.
“For the most part, introducing guns is going to take a safe environment and create hazards,” he said. “Drinking occurs on most campuses, and bringing guns into that situation will only create circumstances where there is more of chance for something bad to happen.”
He said only about 25 colleges and universities in the country allow guns on campus.
They are legal at public colleges in Utah and have a toehold in Colorado.
A group successfully sued the University of Colorado in Boulder for the right to carry guns on campus. The Colorado Supreme Court, though, has decided to hear that case, so the issue is undecided. Meantime, Colorado State University in Fort Collins dropped its policy against concealed weapons after a judge and an appeals court sided with those seeking to carry concealed handguns at the Boulder school.
Pelosi said 24 other states, including New Mexico and Texas, ban guns on campus. Twenty-three states leave the decision to universities.
He said Michigan State University is rare in that it allows those with permits a partial right to carry guns. They cannot bring them into classrooms.
The other two states - Illinois and Wisconsin - do not allow concealed-carry permits.
Cook said even though he had included liquor establishments in his bill, these private establishments would retain the right to restrict handguns or any weapons. Moreover, he said, a person carrying a concealed handgun could not legally drink in a bar or restaurant, an argument that did not lessen Chief Chavez’s concerns about liquor and weapons.
As for New Mexico’s buses, weapons have been prohibited on them since 1978, said Mike Bartholomew, administrator for Las Cruces’ Roadrunner transit system.
“It seems to make sense not to have weapons on the buses,” he said.
Years ago, Bartholomew said, a driver spotted a passenger in a wheelchair with a pistol in a clear zip-lock bag. Some time later the bus system posted signs saying weapons were prohibited.
He said he thought the logic behind the law was that people in a confined space could not get away if someone pulled a gun.
“I suppose, from a practical point of view, if a weapon is concealed the driver would not know about it,” Bartholomew said.
A second feature of Cook’s bill would erase a law that says only one concealed handgun can be carried at a time. He said that is another stricture at odds with the U.S. Constitution.
Copyright 2011 Deming Headlight, a MediaNews Group Newspaper