An ongoing legal battle may decide whether guns are allowed on public university campuses. Pro-gun group Florida Carry’s case against the University of Florida may do what the Legislature did not.
A concealed weapons bill for public college and university campuses stalled in the Senate during this year’s Florida legislative session. Now a lawsuit pitting Florida Carry against the University of Florida may expand the list of places where firearms can be held at those schools.
Florida Carry Executive Director Sean Carana says the school’s prohibition of firearms in university housing violates the Second Amendment as well as state law.
“The Legislature actually has a law in place that says that you can have a gun inside in your home,” Carana says, “and that that law will supersede any law in conflict with it.”
Florida’s statutes include a series of lawful uses—including possessing arms at home. Florida Carry points to this provision in its case against the university.
But it seems that law is a bit like The Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, pointing in opposite directions. The University is looking to the very same statute’s list of unlawful uses—arguing it specifically includes the guns at schools.
The First District Court of Appeals hears arguments in the case Tuesday.
