Officials at some public and private colleges in Ohio say they don’t plan to take action on a new state law taking effect this spring that allows permit holders to carry a concealed firearm on campus.
Under the bill signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich last month, firearms are allowed only if a college’s board of trustees agrees to allow concealed carry on campus.
A Cleveland.com survey of every private and two-year college in northeast Ohio and every public university in the state found that officials at several schools don’t plan to take further action.
Cuyahoga Community College President Alex Johnson said in a campus email that he’s been in close communication with trustees on the matter and that the board “has no intention of taking action to permit concealed carry in Tri-C facilities.”
A spokesman for Bowling Green State University said President Mary Ellen Mazey will recommend to the school’s board of trustees that the current ban remain in place.
Lawrence Pollock, the chairman of the board of trustees at Kent State University, said: “The university policy on deadly weapons as approved in September represents the Board’s position on this issue and we have no plans for further action.”
The board of trustees at Notre Dame College in northeast Ohio plan to discuss the issue at their next meeting on Feb. 17, spokesman Brian Johnston said in an email.
Ohio lawmakers in December expanded the state’s concealed-weapons law while also allowing places like day cares and colleges to ban guns if they want. The legislation also kept a ban on concealed weapons in government buildings unless an agency decides to allow them.
The law takes effect on March 19.
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