20 February 2014

Alaska State Senator Introduces Preemption Bill Aimed at University of Alaska

Long-time readers may remember that I wrote here about the University of Alaska at Anchorage establishing their own regulations for when and where firearms (and now knives) may be carried on campus. In a nutshell, they declared the entire campus off-limits to firearms.

Our State constitution declares "Constitutional carry" the law of the State, and contains a preemption clause. For those who may not know, that means that no local government, village or whatever may enact laws or statutes more restrictive than the State constitution in the matter of firearms.

That's not been good enough for UAA, so they erected signs, a few years ago, prohibiting firearms on campus. Period.

Except they can't do that. State law allows them to put up signs on structures which prohibit carrying inside, but outside?

No.

Now State Senator John Coghill (R - Fairbanks) has introduced SB 176, specifically prohibiting the University from doing that. The bill may be reviewed here. I love this part: "the individual right to keep and bear arms is a constitutionally protected right under art. I, sec. 19, Constitution of the State of Alaska, and may not be abridged by the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska."

Heh.

4 comments:

Matt said...

Ya know, some people are just dense.

Rev. Paul said...

Yes, UAA: a hotbed of liberalism & Progressive professors ... but I repeat myself.

And dense is a good word for it. Thanks.

ProudHillbilly said...

I'm not sure how I feel about a law to enforce a law except that it can be ignored as easily as the one it seeks to enforce is.

Rev. Paul said...

PH, I understand. But the U of A has shown an exceptional disregard for rights & freedoms in this regard, so aiming this bill at them, while unusual, is probably warranted. And of course, they could then be more easily prosecuted for ignoring it in the future.