Republican lawmakers in at least eight states — Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming — have introduced legislation in 2026 to allow concealed carry on public college campuses, accelerating a national push that proponents trace to a series of high-profile campus shootings over the past 18 months. Fox News reported the legislative wave on March 17, noting that bills have been introduced in nearly a dozen states and that supporters argue armed permit holders could stop attacks before police arrive. Stateline, a nonpartisan state policy news service, confirmed the scope of the legislative push on the same day.
The immediate catalyst for the renewed debate was the March 12 shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, in which ROTC cadets physically subdued a convicted ISIS supporter who killed one instructor and wounded two others. Conservative advocates pointed to the ODU incident as evidence that armed, trained individuals on campus are capable of stopping a gunman — and argued that the ROTC cadets succeeded precisely because they had been trained in physical response. In December, a shooter at Brown University in Rhode Island killed two students and injured nine in an engineering building, an attack that also fueled calls for reconsidering campus gun policies.
Supporters of campus carry, cited by Fox News, argue that gun-free zones create target-rich environments for attackers who know no one can shoot back. In Florida, a bill would allow students, faculty, and staff with concealed carry permits to carry on public campuses; an adjacent House bill permits trained faculty and staff to carry without all standard licensing requirements. In Wyoming, legislation would remove permits as a requirement for campus carry altogether. At least 14 states already allow some form of firearms on public college campuses.
Opponents of the bills, cited by Stateline and PBS NewsHour, point to a 2024 peer-reviewed study in The Lancet Regional Health finding that active shootings were 62.5 percent less likely to occur in gun-free establishments than in places allowing firearms. University administrators and faculty associations across the affected states have formally opposed the legislation, citing concerns about accidental discharges, increased suicide risk among students in mental health crises, and the potential chilling effect on campus intellectual culture. More than half of U.S. states currently prohibit firearms on public college campuses.
Left-Leaning Emphasis
- Stateline and PBS NewsHour highlight a 2024 peer-reviewed Lancet study finding that active shootings are 62.5 percent less likely at gun-free establishments, arguing that adding more firearms to campuses would increase — not decrease — the probability of shootings.
- Left-leaning outlets emphasize university administrators' and faculty associations' near-unanimous opposition to campus carry, noting concerns about accidental discharges, elevated student suicide risk, and the hostile effect on learning environments.
Right-Leaning Emphasis
- Fox News frames campus carry as a commonsense self-defense measure, repeatedly citing the ODU ROTC cadets as proof that trained individuals on campus can stop an attacker — and arguing that gun-free zones leave law-abiding students defenseless.
- Conservative commentators argue that campus carry bills do not require all students to carry firearms — only those who choose to exercise a legal right — and that extending permit-based carry to campuses is consistent with allowing it in most public spaces.
Sources
- Fox News Mar 17
- Stateline Mar 17
- PBS NewsHour Mar 12
- Orlando Sentinel Mar 10