Interfaith Group Opposes ‘Campus Carry’ Bill
Adhiti Bandlamudi / WABE
Outcry, an interfaith anti-violence group is asking Gov. Nathan Deal to veto House Bill 280, commonly known as the “campus carry” bill.
“I, myself, am a supporter of the Second Amendment. My father and my grandfather spent some of their careers in law enforcement. However, campuses don’t need more guns,” said James Lamkin, pastor of Atlanta’s Northside Drive Baptist Church.
Rev. William Flippin Jr. of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Rev. Pam Driesell of Trinity Presbyterian Church and Rabbi Neil Sandler of Ahavath Achim Synagogue also spoke against the legislation.
Rev. Caroline Leach, a retired Presbyterian minister, said college kids are vulnerable anyway.
“I just don’t understand how you can let a child of 21 years old carry a gun that they can’t take into most buildings. They can’t store it in their room, which is where they go all the time,” Leach said.
Nibs Strupe, a retired minister of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, said faith groups need to be a leader in this discussion.
“All of us have the same values that are up today, and that is that all life is sacred and belongs to God. The church needs to always be pronouncing that and leading that. For me, this law is basically ideology and not public safety,” Strupe said.
The group delivered a letter to Deal’s office Thursday, asking him to veto the legislation. The bill would let licensed gun owners take their weapons on Georgia’s public college camp uses.
Deal is required to sign or veto laws the Legislature passed this year by early May. If he doesn’t do either, the bill automatically becomes law.
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