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In 2026, Republican legislators have reignited efforts to permit firearms on college campuses, spurred by a series of school shootings that have shaken the nation.
Recently, a convicted felon with links to ISIS unleashed gunfire inside a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia. This tragic event resulted in the death of a teacher and injuries to two others before the shooter was subdued by courageous ROTC cadets.
Just a few months earlier, in December, a gunman targeted an engineering building at Brown University in Rhode Island. This attack claimed the lives of two students and left nine others wounded during final exams. The assailant fled the scene, later killing an MIT professor at his home in the Boston suburbs.
Though it remains uncertain whether an armed civilian could have thwarted the attackers before any harm was done in these recent tragedies, advocates of the policy believe that allowing students or faculty to carry guns could help stop such attacks more swiftly.
In the aftermath of the Old Dominion University shooting, bystanders were evacuated from the campus in Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
On the other hand, critics of campus carry claim more guns on campus increase the risk of violence and accidents.
Lawmakers will debate bills related to loosening gun regulations at colleges in at least eight states this year — including Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
In Florida, a proposed state Senate bill would allow students, faculty and staff to carry guns on public college campuses. A similar state House bill, which is pending the governor’s approval, authorizes trained faculty and staff to carry on campus.
Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school’s campus in Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Fla., who was taking classes at Florida State University in 2025 when a gunman killed multiple people on campus, said students felt helpless during the attack.
“You could tell from a lot of the back and forth that they felt very helpless, and they wanted something. They wanted to help,” Salzman told WFSU Public Media. “They wanted to be able to save their friends, and they didn’t want to see this happening.”
Lawmakers in Louisiana introduced a broad campus-carry bill that would allow any legal adult to carry guns on college campuses, removing higher education institutions from the list of gun-free zones.
Damon Thueson shows a holster at a gun concealed carry permit class concealed carry permit class put on by “USA Firearms Training” on December 19, 2015, in Provo, Utah. (Getty Images)
State Republican Rep. Danny McCormick, one of the bill’s authors, claimed the legislation would align campus laws with Louisiana’s existing carry law.
More than a dozen states already allow some form of on-campus carry, including: Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
However, the regulations vary from state to state.
Prior to West Virginia’s January 2023 decision to allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns on college and university campuses, the presidents of West Virginia State University, Concord University and Shepherd University said they had “serious reservations” about what they alleged were “significant public safety challenges and financial burdens” the bill would present.
“Introducing firearms into this already challenging environment could have unintended consequences,” the presidents said.
They also alleged that access to firearms would increase suicide risks.