Senate committee approves 'campus carry' bill 5-3

ATLANTA - A state senate committee put its stamp of approval on a controversial bill Monday that would allow guns on college campuses.

House Bill 859, also known as the "campus carry" bill, passed the senate judiciary committee by a 5-3 vote.

"It's about allowing people the freedom in the state of Georgia on our college campuses to not be victims," said Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R- Canton, one of the bill's sponsors.

The vote outraged members of the Georgia Chapter of Moms Demand Action, a gun safety group connected to Everytown for Gun Safety.

"I mean really? You're gonna be able to pull out a gun and you're gonna be like Bruce Willis or Clint Eastwood and you're gonna fight somebody that's got a gun on you while you're in the library studying," said Carol Allen after the committee vote.

The bill, however, has seen increased momentum this year after high-profile crimes on college campuses, including armed robberies inside the Georgia State University library.

"We've been trying to get it done now since about 2008," said Jerry Henry, the executive director of Georgia Carry.org, a grassroots gun rights group.

House Bill 60, dubbed the "guns everywhere bill," originally also contained campus carry language, but that provision did not survive the legislative process in 2014.

Henry believes this year's bill has the best chance it’s ever had to become law. 

"You're not [going to] keep guns off campus.  They're [going to] be there.  The felons, the people that are not supposed to have them will always have them there," Henry explained.  "All this does is give the honest person [...] to be able to defend themselves if they're in that situation."

The senate judiciary committee approved the bill without any changes.  So, if the full senate votes to approve the bill as written, it will then go to the Governor's desk for his signature.

The sponsors of HB 859 said it could be on the senate floor as early as Friday.