MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A state Senate committee has blocked bills to let professors and some students carry guns on Alabama's college campuses.

The Senate Education Committee voted down three bills sponsored by Republican Sen. Hank Erwin of Montevallo on Wednesday. The votes came after Alabama university officials said they would make campuses unsafe.

The bills were voted down largely along party lines, with Republicans mostly supporting them and Democrats opposing them.

Erwin said he was trying to make campuses safer after 32 students were killed by a gunman at Virginia Tech last April and five students were killed by a suicidal gunman at Northern Illinois University in February.

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