UW leaders urge lawmakers not to allow weapons in buildings

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one school that has posted signs banning weapons at entrances to every building on campus.

The introduction of the proposal comes just weeks after a deadly mass shooting on an Oregon college campus, where a gunman killed nine people.

University of Wisconsin chancellors and Ray Cross, president of the entire system, issued a joint statement in opposition to the bill. That student was a licensed concealed weapon holder, but she wasn’t armed because it was prohibited on her campus.

To us, as law enforcement professionals at UWPD, the evidence does not support the idea that our campus would be safer if concealed firearms are allowed in our buildings.

According to 2014 Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) numbers, you are less likely to become a victim of a violent crime at UW-Madison – which now does not allow concealed weapons in buildings – than you are in the state of Wisconsin as a whole.

At nearby UW-Madison, though, administrators, police and more than a dozen students, faculty and staff interviewed by the State Journal on campus opposed the proposal.

As university officials lined up against a bill that would allow anyone with a concealed carry license to bring guns into buildings on college campuses, Gov. Scott Walker wouldn’t say Tuesday whether he supports the proposal. They said, “The unfortunate reality is that campus gun-free zones merely serve to concentrate populations of vulnerable targets on campus and surrounding areas”. Devin Lemahieu, R-Oostburg, are circulating the Campus Carry Act for co-sponsorship at the Capitol.

Democrats did not immediately return requests for comment on the proposed bill.

Walker says “I would hope they would change that”.