Dear Editor,
I am in strong opposition to SB1300/HB2667, which would prevent Colleges and Universities in AZ from prohibiting concealed weapons on campus grounds.
My daughter, who started her freshman year in August 2023 at the University of Arizona, texted me a photo of her in a classroom with the lights off and a table against the door. It was October 5, 2023, a gunman had shot and killed a professor on campus and the school was on lockdown. According to Everytown Research and Policy, Arizona has the 9th most lenient gun safety laws in the country. Weaker gun laws are proportional to higher rates of gun violence. Though the President of the University of Arizona outlined the numerous steps they had taken to prevent this threat from becoming a reality, it’s clear that these weak gun laws created barriers that prevented them from taking appropriate preventative actions. Unfortunately, these scenarios are happening far too often in our schools across the United States.
Currently, Arizona law prohibits people from possessing a “deadly weapon” on school grounds.
SB1300/HB2667 has been introduced to prevent schools from prohibiting concealed weapons. The answer to gun violence is not more guns. In 2022 alone there were 183 reported incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 62 deaths and 150 injuries nationally. Adding more guns on school campuses will only lead to more incidents of gunfire, resulting in more injuries and more deaths.
I recently obtained a public health degree. Public health to me embodies focusing on promoting the health of the community, which involves solving public health problems based on the collective good for the community and not focusing on an individualistic agenda. Responsible gun ownership isn’t about politics, it is about common sense. Our focus should be on common sense legislation to keep our community safe from the increasing threat of gun violence.
None of us want to get a text, call, or email from our children’s school informing us there was a gun violence tragedy on campus. A place where you entrusted the safety of your child. We can all agree we want the same thing when it comes to keeping our communities and families safe. We need to come to a shared consensus that places value on the collective health of our community by passing common sense gun legislation in the State of Arizona. Please encourage Governor Hobbs to veto SB1300/HB2667.
Jeannette Domask, MPH
Moms Demand Action Volunteer