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Everytown, Nevada Moms Demand Action Condemn Assembly Passage of Extremist Michele Fiore’s Bill to Force Nevada Colleges to Allow Concealed, Loaded Guns on Campus

4.6.2015

LAS VEGAS – The Nevada chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, and Nevada students and teachers today condemned the Assembly passage of AB 148, legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Michele Fiore that would force Nevada colleges and universities to allow concealed, loaded weapons on campus.

The legislation is part of Fiore’s extreme agenda to make it legal for people with no firearm safety training, teenagers, violent criminals and convicted stalkers to carry hidden, loaded guns in public places throughout Nevada, including on college campuses. Numerous surveys indicate that key university stakeholder groups – including college students, faculty, administrators and campus police – overwhelmingly oppose guns on campus.

“It’s clear that Assemblywoman Fiore doesn’t care how students feel about being forced to choose between going to a school where students can carry concealed, loaded guns on campus or leaving the state,” said Samantha Burtch, a junior at UNLV. “But we’re the ones who will have to pay the price if the Nevada Legislature continues to follow Michele Fiore’s lead when it comes to our state’s gun laws.”

“Colleges in other states that have forced guns on campus have incurred millions of dollars in additional security and insurance costs,” said John Farley – UNLV Professor and President of the UNLV Chapter of the Nevada Faculty Alliance. “In addition to my deep concerns about my safety and the safety of my students, I absolutely cannot understand how the Assembly can justify forcing our hard-pressed colleges and universities to spend all that extra money on something that nobody wants.”

“The only people who should be carrying concealed weapons on our campuses are trained officers and security,” said Cassie Rice, a Las Vegas mother and volunteer with the Nevada chapter of Moms Demand Action. “I don’t feel safe knowing that our children won’t have an option to be free from weapons on Nevada campuses anymore if Michele Fiore has her way.”

The Presidents of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, Truckee Meadows Community College and the Associated Students of the University of Nevada have publicly opposed AB 148. As UNR President Marc Johnson told the Reno Gazette-Journal during debate on the bill last month, “They aren’t doing this for us… They are doing it to us.”

AB 148 now heads to the State Senate.