TALLAHASSEE -- Gun legislation will be at the top of the agenda when lawmakers return to the state Capitol this week to begin preparing for the 2016 session, which has an early start in January.

House and Senate criminal justice committees will take up bills (HB 4001 and SB 68) filed by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, and Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, that would allow Floridians with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on the campuses of state colleges and universities.

Similar bills were filed in the 2015 session, with the House measure clearing all its committees but the Senate bill stalled in the committee process with opposition from higher-education leaders and law enforcement officials.

As a prelude to the campus gun bill debate, a gun-rights group, Florida Carry Inc., filed a legal challenge against Florida State University, asserting its football “game day” guide violated an appellate court ruling that held universities could not prevent firearms from being stowed in cars on campus.

FSU’s game day guide said fans could not store firearms in their parked vehicles on campus during a game. FSU later modified the guide language, acknowledging the original version did not reflect the court ruling.

FSU President John Thrasher, who as both a former state senator and now university leader, has played a key role in blocking the guns-on-campus legislation, although Thrasher was a strong supporter of most gun legislation during his years in the Legislature.

In responding to the Florida Carry challenge, Thrasher reasserted his opposition to allowing guns on state university and college campuses.

“While we fully intend to continue complying with Florida law, I nevertheless reiterate my strenuous opposition to the recent initiatives to permit the carrying of guns on university campuses,” Thrasher said in a statement. “I do not believe that arming students increases campus safety.”

Another gun measure aimed at limiting shooting rights on residential property will also be taken up by House and Senate committees this week.

The legislation (HB 41 and SB 130), sponsored by Reps. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, and Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, in the House and Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, in the Senate, would make it a crime to target shoot or fire celebration shots on residential property of one acre or less. It is in response to controversies over backyard shooting ranges that have popped up in places like St. Petersburg and the Florida Keys.

The bills would make violations a first-degree misdemeanor, although the measures allow residential shooting in cases of self-defense or if the shooting “does not pose a reasonably foreseeable risk to life, safety or property.”

The bill has the support of the National Rifle Association and the Florida Police Chiefs Association. A similar measure died in the 2015 session.

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Black robes. The Florida Supreme Court came down firmly in favor of all Florida judges wearing black robes. The unanimous decision, which came over opponents who said the state’s highest court should not take on a role as the judicial fashion police, decreed that judges must not wear robes of any other color nor try to adorn their robes with other embellishments. “The people of Florida have a right to expect equal justice every day in every court in this state and should not have to question whether equal justice is being dispensed based on the color of a judge’s robe,” the opinion said.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Edmund Kirby Smith. State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, has filed a bill (HB 141) that could lead to the removal of the Confederate general’s statue at the U.S. Capitol where it has stood since 1922. It is one of two statues in the national Capitol that Florida, like the other 49 states, has placed to represent the state. Diaz’s bill would create a process where the state Division of Historical Resources could pick a replacement for Gen. Smith to join the statue of John Gorrie, the Apalachicola doctor who is considered a pioneer in the creation of modern air conditioning. The state Senate is expected to consider a similar measure.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I have decided to vote against the agreement because I have grave doubts it will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and a deep concern it could provide a pathway to legitimizing Iran’s nuclear program,” U.S. Rep Gwen Graham, D-Tallahassee, said in announcing her opposition to the Iran nuclear accord. Graham was the last member of Florida’s 27-member congressional delegation to take a position, with six Democrats in support, four opposed and all 17 Republicans in opposition.