Adam Tamburin

atamburin@tennessean.com

Full-time college employees are now allowed to carry guns on campus, but only a small percentage of those employees have indicated they will do so, according to information from several law enforcement agencies.

A law allowing employees at public universities with the necessary permits to carry a concealed firearm went into effect Friday. But before they can carry their weapons on school grounds, employees need to alert campus or local law enforcement.

As of this week, a small fraction of the 27,000 eligible employees at the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee college systems had chosen to take advantage of the new law, according to multiple agencies.

Police at UT-Knoxville had fielded requests from 72 employees who wanted to be able to bring their guns on campus, a spokeswoman there said Thursday.

At Middle Tennessee State University, 15 to 20 of about 2,000 eligible employees had asked law enforcement to carry guns on campus, according to an estimate from the school's police chief, Buddy Peaster. Peaster added that he expects more employees to register there through the rest of the month.

Seventeen employees at the University of Memphis had applied to carry firearms by Friday, according to the police chief there.

Other state schools have seen significantly lower interest in the law, which won wide support in the General Assembly despite strong opposition from higher education officials and campus law enforcement.

Haslam allows controversial guns on campus bill to become law

Austin Peay State University logged six requests to carry by Thursday. Tennessee State University had three, a spokesman said. Three employees at Volunteer State Community College have registered to carry guns there, a spokesman said.

Metro police — who are logging requests for Nashville campuses that don't have their own law enforcement, such as Nashville State Community College — have logged two requests to carry guns by Thursday. Both of those requests came from employees at a local UT satellite campus.

As of Friday, 11 employees had completed the notification process to carry a handgun on the East Tennessee State University campus. Seven of the 745 full-time employees at UT-Martin had registered by the end of the week.

Supporters of the new measure, which was allowed to become law without Gov. Bill Haslam's signature in May, said allowing responsible gun owners to carry their weapons on campus could prevent or stop a mass shooting. Law enforcement challenged that assertion, saying police are better trained to respond to such an emergency.

College officials have indicated that the law has created bureaucratic headaches at many of the state's smaller campuses. Colleges and law enforcement had to scramble to establish policies that outlined several exceptions to the law and allowed administrators to track the guns on campus without violating the law's strict confidentiality requirements.

Tennessee colleges scramble as law allowing guns on campus nears

Gannett Tennessee reporters Autumn Allison and Brian Wilson contributed to this report. Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.