Santa Fe College Student Senate struck down a resolution Wednesday evening that supported concealed carry on Florida college and university campuses.
The resolution, written by Sen. Benjamin Myers and Sen. Paul Jenkins, called for Santa Fe to support two bills in the Florida legislature to allow concealed carry on public college campuses.
The senators voted 19-13 against the resolution, with six abstaining. The vote followed a discussion on the resolution during last week’s senate meeting.
Myers presented a PowerPoint presentation outlining the requirements to obtain a concealed carry permit, and showing statistics alleging crimes have gone down in Florida since the state allowed concealed carry permits and that a majority of mass shootings happen in gun free zones.
"It might be a coincident, it might not be," Myers said, "but I’m seeing a trend across all the world — as gun control goes up, so do the violent crimes. As gun control gets looser and the rights are restored to the public, they tend to go down."
The resolution faced opposition and criticism from the chamber, with some saying they would feel unsafe allowing guns on campus.
"I feel like just more exposure to guns is unsafe on a large campus," said Sen. Isabel Rivera. "We do have a police department here, so I feel it’s the police department’s job (to keep us safe)."
Santa Fe President Jackson Sasser and Santa Fe Police Chief Ed Book have said they oppose allowing concealed carry on campus.
Despite his resolution being shot down, Myers said he might present other resolutions in the future to allow concealed carry on campus.
"I don’t want any mass shootings to ever happen again," he said during the meeting. "Will my wish come true? Probably not, but I’m going to do my damnedest to prevent as many as I can."
Contact Hunter Williamson at hwilliamson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @hunterewilliam
