MU and UM students, faculty and visitors now able to keep firearms in a locked car

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ.)

The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted Friday to change UM System rules to allow employees, students and visitors to have a gun on campus but it must stay in a locked car.

Most of the curators agreed it shouldn't just be employees who get to keep a firearm on campus; students and visitors should be able to as well. However, curator Greg Hoberock feels like the new ruling could lead to chaos.

Hoberock said, "I think somebody does something stupid by leaving a handgun laying down on the seat. Somebody else walks by the car door and pulls it out. I think we're doing a tremendous disservice to our students in the city of Columbia," Hoberock said.

Hoberock feels students should not have handguns on campus at all, and he says there should be more rules and precautions set for students who do bring a gun on campus.

"And I'm really really concerned that we're going to allow guns on campus and not have a rule that if you're going to leave it in your car, it's got to be out of the site and locked," Hoberock said.

However, not everyone at the meeting felt the same way. Curator Jeffery Layman says it's time to stop spending money on unnecessary rules.

"We don't have to have unnecessary rules on top of rules on top of rules and again the number we were given this morning is that we've spent $1.25 million over the last five years, six years. Uh to me it's just unnecessary and we're still open to that exposure," Layman said.

The board approved changes to the rules last month to bring the UM System in line with an appeals court ruling saying that employees can keep guns in their vehicles on campus. On Friday, the board approved changes to allow visitors and students to have guns in vehicles on a resolution brought forward by Curator Todd Graves.

The change applies to all four UM System campuses.

The February appeals court ruling stems from a case brought by MU law professor Royce Barondes in 2015. Barondes sued the curators and the UM System president to have a gun in his vehicle after legal changes allowed state employees to keep guns in their vehicles while at work.

MU spokesperson Christian Basi says the rule will go into effect when it is officially published which should be in the next couple of days.