House Bill (HB) 4005 and Senate Bill (SB) 176, are currently working
their way through committees in the Florida House of Representatives and
Senate, respectively. These bills would allow persons over 21 years of
age who have a concealed weapons permit to carry their weapon on college
and university campuses.
UFF opposes these bills and was represented in Tallahassee by Jennifer
Proffitt, FSU chapter President, Matthew Lata from the FSU chapter and
Marshall Ogletree who all testified before the committee. Despite our
points of view representing your interests and the views of many other
opponents against the bill, the majority of committee members took the
NRA position over the position held by faculty, students, campus police
and the Board of Governors.
SB 176 has three more stops in the Senate, the Higher Education
Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Rules Committee. UFF will be
there until we can stop this bad legislation.
We will continue providing reports on SB 176 and it’s companion measure,
HB 4005, in the weeks ahead. The session begins March 3rd and we ask
that you contact your Senator and Representative and let them know how
you feel.