Arizona Governor Rejects Bid to Loosen Gun Rules

The surprise veto of the gun measure disappointed advocates of gun rights, who vowed to bring it back next year. The bill, as originally proposed, would have allowed guns everywhere on campus, including in classrooms. In the face of strong criticism, it was amended to permit weapons only on “a public right of way” within campuses, which legislative supporters said they understood to mean sidewalks and roads.

But Ms. Brewer, a strong advocate of gun rights, who has supported loosening restrictions on guns in the past, said the language was unclear.

Cheering the governor’s decision were university administrators, faculty members, police chiefs and students, all of whom strongly opposed the measure because they said it would have brought an element of danger into the academy.

“We come to school to learn and don’t need any more distractions,” said Kim Sell, a nutritional sciences major at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who was interviewed near a sign at the entrance to campus that declares, “Weapon free zone.”

A desire to spare additional problems for Arizona prompted Ms. Brewer to veto the so-called birther bill that would have required presidential candidates to present their long-form birth certificates or other documents to prove their citizenship, a measure pressed by lawmakers who question President Obama’s birthplace.

“I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit ‘early baptismal or circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona secretary of state,” the governor wrote in her veto statement. “This is a bridge too far.”

On the gun measure, State Senator Ron Gould, a Republican from Lake Havasu City , argued that students and professors were vulnerable to armed attackers and should not have their Second Amendment rights restricted on campus. Utah is the only state that requires universities to allow guns on their campuses.

A requirement in early versions of the bill that those carrying weapons on campus complete a concealed-weapon training course did little to assuage the concerns of critics.

“Law enforcement intervention should be done by law enforcement personnel who have been specifically selected and trained to perform these duties, not by individuals who may have marginally completed an eight-hour course years ago or other marginal training and possibly have not practiced with the firearm they are now carrying,” the chiefs of police from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University said in a joint letter to lawmakers urging defeat of the bill.

Arizona leaves it up to the state’s colleges and universities to set their own policies on firearms, and all institutions of higher education currently ban them.

Marisa Gerber contributed reporting from Tucson.