There were a few tears and a lot of applause Wednesday night as the final meeting of the 2009 Student Government spring legislative session drew to a close. Though many senators said goodbye to the senate chambers for the last time around 9:30 p.m., it was not the end of the SG legislature for the evening.Immediately following the adjournment of the 2009 spring session, new senators were sworn in for the beginning of the 2009 special legislative session. Once the new senators were sworn in, they voted to elect the new members of the legislative staff.E.J. Orso College of Business senators Tyler Martin and Brett Jackson were elected Speaker and Speaker Pro Tempore.Following the election of the legislative board, SG President and Vice President Stuart Watkins and Martina Scheuermann were officially sworn in, completing the transition period of SG.Before the 2009 spring session ended, the Senate body held one more session of heated debate over a series of resolutions involving Louisiana House Bill No. 27, which would authorize the carrying of concealed handguns by permit holders on campus.
The debate began with the reintroduction of SG Resolution No. 21, which supported the state legislature.Author of the resolution Sen. Brooksie Bonvillain, Manship School of Mass Communication, began the debate by presenting some facts and statistics about the state legislature’s bill and statistics about concealed handguns.Bonvillain said only 0.7 percent of Louisiana residents are registered to carry concealed handguns, which would make the number of concealed weapons on campus insignificant.”If LSUPD can’t control the 0.7 percent with a permit, how can we expect them to control the other 99.3 percent?” Bonvillain said.Bonvillain reminded the senators they were voting on a constitutional right which affected not only University students, but people in the immediate Baton Rouge area who are also not allowed to carry their concealed weapons on campus.Other senators, such as Manship School of Mass Communication senator Parker Wishik and Graduate School senator Suman Kumar, said their constituents had spoken out strongly against the resolution. They said they would be voting with their constituents.The resolution failed after a roll call style vote. It was followed by the opposing resolution, SGR No. 30, which would have urged the state legislature not to pass their bill.Though the resolution was expected to pass because of the previous resolution failed, SGR No. 30 also failed by a single vote.Because the Senate wanted to send something to the state legislature, they voted to pass SGR No. 31. The resolution would not urge the state one way or the other but would only present the results of the SG statistician’s findings on student opinions.Of the 500 students polled by the statistician, 62 percent were opposed to permit holders being allowed to bring their weapons on campus.Though the bill passed the Senate, it was immediately vetoed by former SG president Colorado Robertson in his final official act as SG president.Robertson said he vetoed the bill because it was the Senate’s role to take a stand.”This body could not come to an opinion, and this body develops the official opinion of the University, and it deferred to a poll of only 500 students,” Robertson said.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]