MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) – A West Virginia University group held its own press conference, regarding West Virginia Senate Bill 10, on Monday, Jan. 13.

Senate Bill 10 was introduced to the State Senate on Jan. 11, and if passed, the bill would allow university students and staff, across the state of West Virginia, to carry concealed guns on their campuses. The bill was introduced to the House judiciary on Jan. 25, after passing in the Senate legislative session on Jan. 24.

WVU’s “West Virginia’s Advocates” group was not able to attend the legislature press conference where SB10 was discussed, so they wanted to bring their own press conference to campus. A booth was set up across the street from the Mountainlair, where the group held signs.

Students who spoke at the event were all against SB10, although the mic was open to anyone.

Several students spoke about their past experiences related to high school shootings and campus threats and said that when these things took place, they were scared to return to school campuses, and still get scared when threats are made now.

WVU senior political science major Tiara Rowe said that mental health should be the larger concern. “If you’ve been a student here at WVU since 2019, I can recall myself remembering a student taking their own life on campus, along with a whole lot of other situations that was uncovered, when this happened on campus.” Rowe said that West Virginia should recognize mental health first before allowing the campus of almost 30,000 students to carry a gun, due to being mentally unwell and unstable.

Joanna Switala, a public administration student with the West Virginia Advocates, shared her own opinion on why she is against the proposed bill. “We don’t want anyone to feel unsafe on campus. The rules would require for residents halls to be different and there’s just not enough rules and regulations in place to make sure if this legislation is passed, people are going to feel safe on campus with guns,” she said. “Guns don’t make people safer, in my opinion.”

To try to get the opposing sides opinions, 12 News reached out to WVU College Republicans for a statement, but has not yet heard back yet. However, there were multiple bystanders that yelled out their opposing views as they drove or walked by. When asked to do an interview regarding their stance on the bill, they all denied comment.