'Clearly not working': After UNC lockdowns, top NC lawmaker questions effectiveness of gun-free zones
A day after UNC-Chapel Hill students and gun control advocates protested this week at the state legislature, a top Republican leader said Thursday that their requests are likely to go nowhere — and that if the legislature does react, it would more likely be to further loosen gun rules.
A day after the campus was locked down while police pursued a suspect now charged with pointing a gun at someone at an on-campus bagel shop, House Speaker Tim Moore said there's little chance of the GOP-controlled state legislature passing a "red flag" type of law to allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people with mental illness or those who are otherwise judged to be a threat. But he did question the state law banning guns on school property, suggesting that maybe the legislature would consider ending that.
"A number of students said, 'Why do they have to be unarmed, when there's clearly a way that bad guys can get on the campus?'" Moore said. "It's a gun-free zone. And that clearly is not working."
He reiterated that more gun control is not what he and fellow Republicans see as the solution to gun violence.
"You're not going to just snap your fingers and get rid of guns," Moore said Thursday. "That's not reality. Criminals are going to have guns, and the best solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Democrats were incredulous at the suggestion.
"So more students at frat houses, and that are drinking alcohol and things of that sort, have more gun access?" Rep. Robert Reives, the top House Democrat, said when asked about Moore's comments. "And that will make campus more safe? That's his proposal?"
Moore and Reives are both UNC grads; Reives said he can't imagine how different his own college experience would've been if there had been guns everywhere.
"It frightens me to think that while I was in college, between 18 and 21, that friends of mine — who are in great positions in the world right now — would've had immediate gun access," Reives said.
"Absolutely fruitcake logic," Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, wrote on social media. "Moore’s idea to end gun-free zones on campuses would have made it legal for the guy to have had the gun at UNC yesterday."
Moore, however, said it's not just an abstract political debate to him. He wants to do something for student safety.
"I have a son who's a student at UNC-Chapel Hill," Moore said. "So this is very personal."
The legislature's other top Republican leader, however, threw some cold water on the proposal Thursday. Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters he's not necessarily opposed to allowing guns on campus, but that he'd need to hear a lot more debate on the idea before deciding to support it.
He said he's not sure anything the legislature could do would've helped with either of the recent lockdown situations.
"I certainly understand the desire to do something," Berger said. "But I think unless that's something that reasonably would have prevented something from happening, I just don't know that there's anything ... that would be reasonable for us to do."
UNC went into lockdown for the second time in recent weeks Thursday after reports of a man with a gun on campus. On Wednesday someone unconnected to UNC was arrested for on allegations of waving a gun, but not firing it, in a dispute with a campus worker at a restaurant in the student union. It followed a lockdown late last month in which police spent hours pursuing a PhD student who was ultimately charged with shooting and killing his faculty advisor, physical sciences professor Zijie Yan, in a campus lab building.
Moore has been criticized online in the past two days for dismissing the concerns of UNC students who came to the legislature to protest Wednesday, suggesting they were secretly Duke students. Moore is a UNC graduate and athletics fan.
On Thursday he defended his response, saying he had shown those students respect by extending them official courtesies before they began shouting "vote them out" at the state's Republican legislative majority. The students were eventually escorted out of the House gallery.
"I could see there was a lot of tension in the room, and a lot of anger," Moore said. "So sometimes you use humor to try and lighten the mood a little bit."
