Credit: PHOTO VIA ANTHONY SABATINI/TWITTER

A long-debated proposal that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on state college and university campuses has re-emerged in the Florida House.

Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, on Friday filed a “campus carry” proposal (HB 6007) for consideration during the 2022 legislative session, which will begin in January.

Backed by gun-rights supporters, similar proposals in the past have been opposed by higher-education leaders such as Florida State University President John Thrasher, a former House speaker and state senator who is retiring from his university post and will be succeeded Monday by Richard McCullough.

Sabatini has sponsored the campus-carry proposal the past three years but has not been able to pass it.

In the 2021 session, House committees did not hear his bill, and a Senate version was not filed.

As of July 31, nearly 2.34 million concealed-weapons licenses had been issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Division of Licensing. The number is up from 1.95 million in January 2019.

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