Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill on May 30 allowing college campuses to lease space to “non-profit corporations or associations to hold fundraisers that include the auctioning or sale of firearms.”

The new law, which will go into effect on August 1, will allow guns to be auctioned at nonprofit events on college campuses. It does not allow universities to host events like gun shows where firearms are bought and sold for profit. HB 244, written by State Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, passed on a 90-2 vote in the state senate.

Broadwater called it a safety measure, explaining that schools have long been letting nonprofit organizations rent space on their campuses to hold events. In many of those cases, guns are auctioned or sold, he said to the Advocate’s Capitol News Bureau.

There has been much confusion surrounding HB 244, as some believed it allowed guns to be sold on campuses. State Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, thinks that it sends the wrong message to students.

Norton said that the bill implies it’s acceptable to have guns on college campuses.

“You are concerned about safety, I’m concerned with the message it sends,” Norton said to Capitol News Bureau, “I think it’s the wrong thing to do.”

Broadwater was adamant that HB 244 is about safety, consistency, and clarity.

The bill includes certain safety restrictions such as keeping firearms in a secure display, having campus security present, holding the event indoors and firearms being sold with a safety feature that renders the weapon nonoperational while on display.

According to Louisiana law, all schools including colleges and universities in the state are “firearm-free zones.” This means that it is illegal to carry a gun on any campus, even with a concealed carry weapons permit. A person’s vehicle is also an extension of his or her home. While it is legal to keep a firearm in your car, you would be in violation of the law the minute you take it out on a school’s campus.

Nicholls currently employs a strict policy against firearms and dangerous weapons on campus. The Student Code of Conduct reads that any person violating the policy is subject to criminal prosecution and University disciplinary action.

Campus Police Chief Craig Jacuzzo said that the university hasn’t had any situations involving firearms.

“We have been lucky that we have not had any situations occur with students or businesses on campus, or individuals passing through our campus,” Jacuzzo said.

“That doesn’t mean it can’t, or it won’t, but we have not had one [situation] in the past six or seven years.”

Louisiana is one of 34 states that do not require background checks at the purchase or sale of a firearm.

Jacuzzo was resolute that campus is not a place for firearms or weapons.

He said that over the past few years, Louisiana legislature has been trying to allow firearms on campuses, and that HB 244 is another way lawmakers are inching guns into schools.

“I think this is just another one slowly inched to get to where everyone can pretty much walk around like cowboys in the wild west with guns on their sides, even at an educational institution,” Jacuzzo said.