Bill Could Allow College Faculty to Carry Concealed Guns on Campus

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The scare of a possible gunman at Oklahoma City Community College Friday is shedding light on one Oklahoma lawmaker's bill.

Representative Jason Murphy from Guthrie wants to allow faculty and those who are CLEET certified to be able to carry concealed guns on college campuses.

Representative Murphy said by allowing teachers who are trained to carry concealed guns, it could put enough doubt in someone's mind who may want to come to a campus like OCCC to do harm.

Murphy also said should the incident that happened at OCCC on Friday been real, than a teacher with a gun could have been the one deterrent to keep students safe.

"If there is a teacher there who has a carry concealed license and is able to defend themselves and others on the campus than the element of doubt is put in the criminals mind and so they don't want to run across that teacher who can defend themselves," Representative Murphy.

But some students, including those on OCCC's campus, don't think professors having guns would make the campus safer. Others said campus security is there to protect students and it's not the teachers' responsibility.

The deadline for Murphy's bill to get debated this session has passed. However, Murphy said if the right opportunity comes up he may try to attach the language of his bill to another gun bill so it could be debated this session.

Also Murphy's bill deals only with college campuses not K-12 schools but he does say if his bill is able to get passed he would certainly be open to the idea of having K-12 teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons as well.

More on News9.com: Report of Gunman At OCCC Was 'Miscommunication,' School Official Says