Tennessee 'Guns on Campus' and 'Guns for Legislators' stalled until next year

Knoxnews' Nashville Bureau Chief Tom Humphrey has this piece today.

The campus guns bill, SB399, would apply to full-time faculty and staff who have handgun carry permits. The House Judiciary Committee sent the bill to a "summer study" on Tuesday, assuring that the measure cannot pass both the House and Senate this year.

When Campfield brought the bill up on the Senate panel Wednesday, Sen. Douglas Overbey, R-Maryville, immediately asked the Knoxville lawmaker to voluntarily send his bill to "summer study" as well, arguing "going forward really doesn't accomplish anything, given what has happened in the other chamber."

Campfield refused, noting people in the audience waiting to testify on the bill and saying "it would be an injustice not to let them speak." Most of those in the audience were campus police officers from across the state, including University of Tennessee Police Chief Gloria Graham, who prepared to speak against the bill.

But Nikki Goeser of Nashville, whose husband was killed by a gunman who was stalking her, was also prepared to testify in favor of the bill. Goeser said she worked at a college campus and the killer, who killed her husband in a bar where she worked part time, could as easily attacked on campus. . . .

UPDATE: Nikki Goeser informs me that there is an interesting twist to this story. State Senator Stacey Campfield actually got a bill through the state Senate Judiciary Committee: "permits UT or TBR's farm employees to carry weapons on farms owned, used or operated by public higher education institutions."