The House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to deal with two high profile bills next week.
The first would seek to arm campus police officers throughout the state.
“This bill is about nothing more than the safety and protection of the students, faculty, and staff at our public colleges. I know this is a difficult topic for some to discuss, but in a world of active shooters and terrible tragedies determined by seconds and minutes, it is completely irresponsible for us to fail our students and staff by having to rely on off-campus law enforcement if the worst-case scenario should happen on our public campuses. I’ve been told that the response time to RIC if an active shooting situation where to happen is 5 minutes and frankly, that is way too much time for death and destruction to occur. Our campuses need a faster response and the only solution is armed campus cops,” said Representative O’Brien.
A second bill would ban assault weapons in the state. Governor McKee has urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to come together to pass a clean bill and send a real message.
The committee will meet Monday at 2pm to discuss those two bills as well as 25 others.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)