Students and professors will be legally allowed to carry concealed handguns onto college campuses starting Saturday in the US state of Kansas.
The concealed carry law was enacted four years ago and applied to all public buildings, but colleges in the Midwestern state were exempted until July of this year.
The law is the latest in a series of state legislative efforts around the country to address the issue of campus safety from potential shooters.
Some approaches tightened restrictions on guns while others made them more available with the goal of allowing potential targets of gun violence to defend themselves with their own weapons.
Kansas is joining Arkansas, Georgia and other states with laws that allow students and faculty to carry guns on college campuses. California and South Carolina are among 16 states that ban the practice.
The Kansas law would still let universities ban concealed guns, but only if they provide students with metal detectors at entrances to buildings, which school administrators have said would be prohibitively expensive.
The concealed carry law has prompted some faculty to leave state universities, according to Topeka TV station KSNT, even as campus administrators offered guidance and information to help students and staff understand the new requirements.
“I am looking for another job,” Philip Nel, an English professor at Kansas State University, told KSNT, “I will not teach armed students, because that’s crazy.”
Wichita State University emphasized in its guidance that the law still allows for multiple prohibitions.
