Proposal: Allow Tasers, other 'non-lethal' weapons at Arizona universities

PHOENIX — A Gilbert lawmaker wants to give people more self-defense options on public university campuses, including Tasers.

Republican Rep. Travis Grantham said he isn’t asking for guns on campuses. That perennial proposal by other lawmakers has never made it into law.

But Grantham said the policies at the state’s three universities prohibiting weapons leave students, faculty, staff and others at the mercy of attackers.

His legislation, HB 2172, would require higher-education schools that get public funds to allow nonlethal weapons. Those are described as devices “explicitly designed and developed to incapacitate or repel a person with a low probability of fatality or permanent injury.”

If the measure is enacted into law it would most immediately overrule an Arizona Board of Regents policy that bans virtually all weapons, including chemical Mace, at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

Regents spokeswoman Sarah Harper said the board — the appointed governing body for the university system — had no immediate response to the legislator’s proposal.

But she noted the policy does allow “normally available over-the-counter self-defense chemical repellents.”

Grantham countered that the wording of the regents’ policy prohibits those repellents from containing sufficient quantities of a key ingredient: oleoresin capsicum, essentially a chili oil extract.

He contends virtually all effective forms of what is commonly called “pepper spray” have that chemical, and that those without it are virtually useless. “It’s kind of like saying you can have a gun, but you can’t have bullets in it,” he said.

The first-term lawmaker said his only aim is to let someone disable an attacker.

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Asked specifically which weapons would be allowed, he answered, “It’s kind of at the discretion, quite honestly, of the user.” But he said it definitely would include the pepper sprays containing oleoresin capsicum.

“You could probably lump stun guns into that,” he continued, “anything that’s meant to incapacitate somebody just long enough so you could get away from them if they’re trying to commit a crime against you.”

He said his definition of nonlethal weapons is designed to take into account other kinds of things that exist — or may in the future.

Those include special flashlights already available that are advertised as being able to blind and confuse attackers. It also would pave the way for personal devices designed to emit sounds to confuse and stun someone.

While Grantham said his focus is on university campuses, his legislation also would affect community colleges.

The measure has been assigned to the House Education Committee. No date has been set for a hearing.

Grantham said there is a need to overturn the regents policy, especially with “sprawling” university campuses.

“Some of these students are coming out of these campuses at 10 or 11 or 12 o’clock at night, in downtown parts of the city,” he said. “And they do feel a little bit uneasy because there’s a lot of people out. And you don’t know who it is. You’re not confined to the safety of the university campus.”

Money is the key to giving lawmakers the power to override regents’ policy.

“If the universities are going to take state funding, and if they’re going to expand rapidly like they’re doing now, and if they’re going to be in various parts of the state throughout our metropolitan areas, I think it makes perfect sense that students should be able to carry the same nonlethal type of weapons that you’re able to carry when you’re walking down a city street,” Grantham said.