A unanimous vote during last week’s ASG meeting passed the first anti-gun resolution by a university in the state of Kansas.

“It just showcases the student opinion about guns on campus,” said Elijah Williams, ASG president and senior political science and economics major. “Last year the student body was given a survey and 72 percent of the students said they would be dissatisfied with guns on campus.”

The resolution does not exist as a document which supersedes state law, according to Williams..

“I think a lot of people get confused about the difference between a bill and a resolution,” Williams said. “A bill is a written document that is law if passed by a legislator and a resolution is just an agreement toward a stance.”

The state law allowing concealed carry on university campuses was passed in 2013, but “state universities have taken advantage of an allowed exemption until July 1, 2017” in order to prepare for the implementation, according to the Kansas Board of Regents’ article, “Frequently Asked Questions about Concealed Carry on Campus.”

“I asked the senates to go out and ask their constituents what they thought about the law and make sure they were educated about it,” Williams said. “After that I wrote the resolution regarding the law and it was passed during the next senate meeting.”

The resolution comes as a response to a survey regarding the concealed carry policy on campus which was administered to students by KBOR.

56 percent of ESU students are in favor of amending the current law so that guns are not allowed on campus. 16 percent support retaining the current law but extending the exemption past 2017, and 28 percent want to keep the current law and allow the exemption to expire, according to the “Kansas Board of Regents Student Advisory Committee Student Gun Policy Opinion Survey.”

Williams encourages students to act upon these preferences by contacting local legislators.

“Contact the people who represent you in the government especially after election day when legislators get back in session,” Williams said. “I think it means a lot from a student’s perspective.”