You’ve Heard the Debate About Guns on Campus. But What About Stun Guns?

Several states have passed, or considered passing, “campus carry” legislation, which allows people with concealed-carry permits to have their firearms on public-college campuses. Such legislation has been introduced in Georgia in recent years, but one Republican state lawmaker, Buzz Brockway, says he plans to introduce legislation that puts an unusual spin on the concept — allowing people to carry Tasers and stun guns.

Mr. Brockway spoke to The Chronicle about the inspiration for the bill and how it fits with efforts to allow firearms on campuses. Following is an edited and condensed version of that conversation.

Q. How did you think of the idea?

A. Over the summer I talked to a number of college students, and a couple of them mentioned to me that they were not allowed to carry pepper spray and mace and that sort of thing on campus, and I felt that was kind of weird. So I started doing some investigation, and that turned out to be sort of an urban legend. Every university I looked at here in Georgia allows students to carry pepper spray and that sort of thing.

But as I was researching it I saw that many of the colleges here specifically said that Tasers and stun guns were not allowed on campus. So I thought maybe this could be a middle ground between not allowing firearms at all but still allowing some additional personal protection for students and other people. It’s just another option for students to protect themselves.

Q. What has been the early reception from lawmakers about the bill?

A. It’s been pretty positive. I did give a couple of their government-affairs people at a couple of the universities a heads-up that I was going to do this. I wasn’t trying to blindside anybody.

Q. So no response from the universities yet?

A. Right. They haven’t taken a position. I know they have been adamantly opposed to allowing firearms on campus.

Q. Do you view your bill as an alternative to campus-carry legislation?

A. It’s a separate debate. I think stun guns and Tasers are very different than firearms. They are clearly a defensive weapon — they’re nonlethal — so I hope the debate between the two remains separate. You can pass campus carry, and we can still do my bill or we could do one or the other or both. Even if you allow guns on college campuses, not everyone is going to want to carry one. But they still might want a device to protect themselves.

Q. Will your bill apply only to stun guns and Tasers?

A. Yeah. We try to define them because Taser is obviously a brand name, kind of like Kleenex. We define them as “electroshock weapons.” That defines them as a device meant to incapacitate by an electrical charge.

Q. With a gun, in theory, you have this life-and-death decision to make. You don’t have that decision to make with electroshock weapons. Are you at all worried they might be used unnecessarily?

A. I don’t think so. I think these things have been on the market for a long time. Looking through Georgia law, there is not anything that prohibits a college-age person from owning one of these. I know a lot of them do. They aren’t allowed to carry them on campus. I don’t know of anything in Georgia law that prohibits a high schooler [from carrying them]. There is no age limit as far as I can tell, and we don’t see widespread pranksterism or misuse of them. They’ve been out on the market for such a long time, I don’t think they’ll be much problem.

Q. You think this will help make campuses safer?

A. I think so, yeah.

Q. Is it something you’d like to see nationwide? Do you think it would make all campuses safer?

A. Sure. I think the whole purpose of freedom of choice is that you can have whatever method of self-defense you choose.