Legislators in at least eight states are pushing to loosen gun restrictions on college campuses so law-abiding citizens have a means of self-defense, according to a FOX News report.
Those states are “Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.”
A bill in Florida would allow “students, faculty and staff to carry guns on public college campuses.”
KPLC notes that Louisiana’s HB 99 would “would allow anyone 18 years or older and lawfully permitted to possess a firearm to carry one on campuses and inside college buildings.”
In South Dakota, Senate Bill 100 is legislation to allow law-abiding citizens to be armed for self-defense on college campuses. And in Wyoming, Stateline reported that “lawmakers debated a measure that would have allowed anyone eligible under the state’s permitless, or ‘constitutional carry,’ law to carry concealed firearms on college campuses.” That measure was not passed. As the law is now, the only people allowed to carry on campus in Wyoming are those who have a “state-issued concealed carry permit.”
On March 12, 2026, a gunman entered a classroom in Old Dominion University’s gun-free campus and killed one person because being stopped by a group of ROTC students.
Stateline quoted John Lott saying, “All you do by creating a gun-free zone is creating a magnet — just read the diaries and manifestos. All you do is create a magnet for those who want to go and kill people.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.