PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS POLICY ON WEAPONS POSSESSION

Transcription

1 PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS POLICY ON WEAPONS POSSESSION The 2013 Kansas Legslature enacted a statute to preclude state and muncpal enttes from prohbtng the concealed carry of handguns by elgble ndvduals nto state and muncpal buldngs, except those buldngs havng adequate securty measures (as defned by the statute) at all publc entrances. The enactment was codfed at K.S.A Supp. 75-7c20. Ths statute dd allow for the governng body or chef admnstratve offcer of certan government enttes to exempt buldngs from applcaton of the law, but for only a perod of up to four years. The Kansas Board of Regents, on behalf of the sx state unverstes, acted to exempt all state unversty buldngs for up to the maxmum perod allowed. Ths exempton perod expres, n accordance wth the statute, on July 1, Accordngly, concealed carry s prohbted n all unversty buldngs untl July 1, 2017 and the proposed Board of Regents polcy amendments now under consderaton do not alter the establshed exempton perod n any way. The followng year, the 2014 Legslature enacted K.S.A. 75-7c24, whch allows state and muncpal enttes to prohbt open carry (.e. the carryng of an unconcealed frearm) nto any buldng that has sgns posted n accordance wth legal requrements. Attorney General Opnon No concludes that at least some publc enttes (n that case a communty college) may also prohbt open carry from other areas on campus. K.S.A. 75-7c24 took effect on July 1, 2014 and all state unverstes have posted the approprate sgnage to prohbt open carry n all buldngs and elsewhere on those campuses, the proposed Board of Regents polcy amendments do not alter that prohbton and the prohbton wll contnue beyond July 1, 2017 unless changed by law. 1 The Board beleves t s n the best nterests of campus communtes to begn plannng for mplementaton of the law, gven the amount of tme remanng before the July 1, 2017 statutory expraton date for the Board s exempton of state unversty buldngs from applcaton of the concealed carry law. Should the law be amended between now and July 1, 2017, the Board and unverstes wll certanly make adjustments to accommodate those changes, but n order to gve the campuses suffcent tme to develop polces, wrte procedures, tran consttuences and otherwse prepare for mplementaton, amendments to the Board s polcy on weapons possesson need to be made soon. We nvte campus groups to revew the followng proposed amendments and provde feedback to the Board offce by December 4, Any feedback receved by November 13, 2015, wll be 1 However, the statutes do requre that new sgnage be posted for buldngs wthn whch concealed carry wll be allowed but open carry wll not. The sgns currently n place are for buldngs n whch both concealed and open carry are prohbted.

2 shared wth the Board s Governance Commttee at ther November meetng. Comments receved after that date wll be shared wth the Governance Commttee at ther December meetng. 14 WEAPONS POSSESSION a To the extent allowed by law Pursuant to the authorty vested n t by Artcle 6, Secton 2 of the Kansas Consttuton, K.S.A. 75-7c20 and K.S.A. 75-7c24, and except as otherwse provded heren, the Board hereby declares that the campus of each state unversty shall be weapons-free. Each entrance to each buldng and faclty on each campus shall be posted n accordance wth K.S.A Supp. 75-7c10, 75-7c11, K.A.R , K.S.A and K.A.R , and amendments thereto. Addtonal sgns may be posted as approprate. Notce of ths polcy shall also be gven n each state unversty s student code of conduct, housng contracts and employee polces. b For purposes of ths polcy:. Weapons means: (1) Any object or devce whch wll, s desgned to, or may be readly converted to expel bullet, shot or shell by the acton of an explosve or other propellant; (2) any handgun, pstol, revolver, rfle, shotgun or other frearm of any nature, ncludng those that are concealed or openly carred; (3) any BB gun, pellet gun, ar/c O2 gun, stun gun or blow gun; (4) any explosve, ncendary or poson gas (A) bomb, (B) mne, (C) grenade, (D) rocket havng a propellant charge of more than four ounces, or (E) mssle havng an explosve or ncendary charge of more than ¼ ounce; (5) any ncendary or explosve materal, lqud, sold or mxture equpped wth a fuse, wck or other detonatng devce; (6) any tear gas bomb or smoke bomb; however, personal self-defense tems contanng mace or pepper spray shall not be deemed to be a weapon for the purposes of ths polcy; (7) any knfe, commonly referred to as a swtch-blade, whch has a blade that opens automatcally by hand pressure appled to a button, sprng or other devce n the handle of the knfe, or any knfe havng a blade that opens or falls or s ejected nto poston by the force of gravty or by an outward, downward or centrfugal thrust or movement; (8) any straght-blade knfe of four nches or more such as a dagger, drk, dangerous knfe or stletto; except that an ordnary pocket knfe or culnary knfe desgned for and used solely n the preparaton or servce of food shall not be construed to be a weapon for the purposes of ths polcy; (9) any martal arts weapon such as nunchucks or throwng stars; (10) any longbow, crossbow and arrows or other projectle that could cause serous harm to any person; or

3 (11) any other dangerous or deadly weapon or nstrument of lke character. The term adequate securty measures shall have the same meanng as the term s defned n K.S.A. 75-7c20, and buldng shall have the same meanng as the term state buldng s defned n K.S.A. 75-7c20. Campus means any buldng or grounds owned by a state unversty or the Board and any buldng or grounds leased by a state unversty or the Board for state unversty use. c. Nothng n ths secton polcy shall be read to prohbt possesson of weapons on campus (1) as necessary for the conduct of Board approved academc programs or unversty approved actvtes or practces, or (2) by unversty polce or securty offcers whle actng wthn the scope of ther employment. Each unversty shall develop and follow polces and procedures for the safe possesson, use and storage of such weapons and shall notfy the Board n wrtng of any actvtes or practces nvolvng weapons that are approved by the unversty under subparagraph c(1) of ths subsecton 14.b. d. Begnnng July 1, 2017, any ndvdual who s 21 years of age or older and who s lawfully elgble to carry a concealed handgun n Kansas may not be precluded from dong so on state unversty campuses except n buldngs and areas of buldngs for whch adequate securty measures are provded, and except as otherwse prohbted by law. Each ndvdual who lawfully possesses a handgun on any state unversty campus shall be wholly and solely responsble for carryng, storng and usng that handgun n a safe manner and n accordance wth the law, Board polcy and unversty polcy. Nothng n ths polcy shall be nterpreted to encourage ndvduals who lawfully possess a handgun to use t n defense of others. Each unversty shall develop and follow polces and procedures for the safe possesson and storage of lawfully possessed handguns, and shall submt such polces and procedures to the Board offce for revew and approval by the Board s Governance Commttee pror to publcaton or mplementaton. Each unversty s polces and procedures shall nclude detaled provsons regardng how and where to report suspected volatons of ths polcy, how faculty, staff and students shall be notfed of the laws and polces pertanng to concealed carry on campus, and shall also provde nterested students, faculty and staff wth nformaton about any known locally or regonally avalable frearm safety nstructon. c.e. Open carry of any frearm anywhere on any campus shall be prohbted. Each entrance to each buldng and faclty on each campus shall be conspcuously posted wth approprate sgns ndcatng that openly carryng a frearm nto that buldng or faclty s prohbted. Addtonal sgns may be posted as approprate. f. Except n those nstances where necessary for self-defense or transferrng to safe storage and except as otherwse provded n subparagraphs c(1) and c(2), t shall be a volaton of Board polcy to openly dsplay any lawfully possessed concealed carry handgun whle on campus. g. Regardless whether the ndvdual s otherwse lawfully elgble to carry a concealed handgun, t shall be a volaton of Board polcy to commt any of the followng offenses on a unversty campus:. Possess a frearm under the nfluence of alcohol or drugs, as defned by K.S.A , and amendments thereto;

4 . dscharge a frearm n volaton of K.S.A , and amendments thereto;. dscharge a frearm wthn or nto the corporate lmts of any cty n volaton of K.S.A a; or v. otherwse possess, store, transport, trade, sell, or n any other way use a frearm n volaton of any applcable law. h. Begnnng July 1, 2017, each ndvdual who lawfully possesses a concealed handgun on campus shall at all tmes be n control of that handgun, and shall ether keep t on ther person wth safety mechansm engaged or stored 1) n any secure storage locaton provded by the unversty specfcally for that purpose, 2) at ther resdence, or 3) n ther vehcle n a secure storage devce that conceals the gun from vew. For any dormtory or scholarshp hall that does not have adequate securty measures, each resdent who lawfully possesses a handgun on campus and elects to store the handgun they possess n the room to whch they are assgned when not carryng t on ther person n a concealed fashon shall secure the handgun n a secure storage devce that conceals the gun from vew. Such storage devces shall be provded by the ndvdual who possesses the handgun and must meet mnmum ndustry standards for safe-keepng of handguns.. Begnnng July 1, 2017, each state unversty shall determne whether and to what extent otherwse lawfully possessed concealed handguns wll be prohbted n any campus buldngs or areas of buldngs by provson of adequate securty measures, permanent or temporary, at each publc entrance to the buldng or area. Each entrance to each buldng where concealed carry s prohbted as provded n ths paragraph shall be conspcuously posted wth approprate sgns ndcatng that carryng a concealed handgun nto that buldng s prohbted. Addtonal sgns may be posted as approprate. Each state unversty that prohbts concealed carry pursuant to ths paragraph shall submt to the Board offce for revew and approval by the Board s Governance Commttee a lst of the buldngs and areas of buldngs so restrcted, the ratonale therefor, and a descrpton of the adequate securty measures to be provded. The lst shall be provded at the tme such buldngs and areas are frst dentfed as requrng adequate securty and, as buldngs or areas of buldngs are added to the lst, at the tme so amended. Once the Governance Commttee has approved a buldng or area for provson of adequate securty measures, re-approval of that buldng or area s not requred. Because safety and securty consderatons may warrant a unversty mplementng adequate securty measures on an as-needed, temporary bass that are ntended to address a specfc concern, each unversty shall nclude n ts annual securty report to the Board nformaton regardng all nstances n whch adequate securty measures were mplemented on an as needed, temporary bass durng the prevous year and the reasons therefor. j. Any ndvdual who volates one or more provsons of ths polcy may be ssued a lawful drectve to leave campus wth the weapon mmedately. Any ndvdual who volates the drectve shall be consdered to be n trespass and may be cted accordngly. Any employee or student of the unversty who volates one or more provsons of ths polcy shall be subject to dscplne n accordance wth applcable unversty codes of conduct. Any ndvdual who volates state or federal law may be detaned, arrested or otherwse subjected to lawful processes approprate to the crcumstances. (a) For the purpose of ths polcy, weapons means: Any object or devce whch wll, s desgned to, or may be readly converted to expel bullet, shot or shell by the acton of an explosve or other propellant;

5 any handgun, pstol, revolver, rfle, shotgun or other frearm of any nature, ncludng concealed weapons lcensed pursuant to the Personal and Famly Protecton Act, and amendments thereto; any BB gun, pellet gun, ar/c O2 gun, stun gun or blow gun; v any explosve, ncendary or poson gas (A) bomb, (B) mne, (C) grenade, (D) rocket havng a propellant charge of more than four ounces, or (E) mssle havng an explosve or ncendary charge of more than ¼ ounce; v v any ncendary or explosve materal, lqud, sold or mxture equpped wth a fuse, wck or other detonatng devce; any tear gas bomb or smoke bomb; however, personal self-defense tems contanng mace or pepper spray shall not be deemed to be a weapon for the purposes of ths polcy; v any knfe, commonly referred to as a swtch-blade, whch has a blade that opens automatcally by hand pressure appled to a button, sprng or other devce n the handle of the knfe, or any knfe havng a blade that opens or falls or s ejected nto poston by the force of gravty or by an outward, downward or centrfugal thrust or movement; v any straght-blade knfe of four nches or more such as a dagger, drk, dangerous knfe or stletto; except that an ordnary pocket knfe or culnary knfe desgned for and used solely n the preparaton or servce of food shall not be construed to be a weapon for the purposes of ths polcy; x x any martal arts weapon such as nunchucks or throwng stars; or any longbow, crossbow and arrows or other projectle that could cause serous harm to any person. k. Notce of ths polcy shall be gven n each state unversty s weapons polcy and housng contracts. To the extent adequate securty measures are used to prohbt concealed carry nto stadums, arenas and other large venues that requre tckets for admsson, the tckets shall state that concealed carry wll be prohbted at that event.