Whether or not students are allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus is becoming a hot button issue for student groups in South Dakota. On Feb. 2, four days after the Senate killed a bill to allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus, the House revived it. Brian Eckrich, president of the South Dakota State University Rifle Association, said the bill might have failed because "we're setting a precedent. People are sometimes scared of new ideas and change." Eckrich contends that legalizing concealed weapons on campus is no different than allowing people to carry concealed weapons in other public places, which is already legal in South Dakota.  Alex Halbach, executive director of the state Student Federation, which represents the student governments of all South Dakota public universities, said that reintroducing a bill that's already failed twice is a waste of "valuable legislative time."  Two SDSU student groups passed resolutions opposing the previous measures because of safety concerns.  "Students never asked for it and aren't supporting it, yet it keeps coming back," said Halbach. "30,000 students (in the [regional] system) are saying that they don't want this, so why are legislators pushing this?"

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