Campus gun bill shot down

BOISE - Even in a gun-loving state like Idaho, there are still places where firearms should be off limits.

That's what state senators decided Friday after two hours of public testimony and debate on legislation that would have opened Idaho's public university and college campuses to firearms. The bill would have prohibited schools from banning firearms anywhere on campus except in undergraduate residence halls.

Administrators at North Idaho College are relieved by the committee's decision.

"The bill was written without consultation or discussion with the higher education institutions and, as a result, was problematic in many ways," said John Martin, NIC's vice president of community relations. "The Senate State Affairs committee's vote, I believe, reflected their concerns with the bill."

NIC is committed to having a safe campus, Martin said, and will continue to explore all ways to keep students, staff, faculty and visitors as safe as possible.

The Idaho House passed Republican Rep. Erik Simpson's bill last week despite opposition from Idaho's public universities and the state Board of Education. Supporters argued that campus gun violence, such as the 2007 mass shootings at Virginia Tech, show the best defense against a gunman is students who can shoot back in defense.

"It is a basic human right to be able to protect yourself from those who intend to harm you," said Simpson, a two-term state lawmaker from Idaho Falls. "Those rights are being denied by Idaho colleges and universities who are creating a false sense of security for the public, students, faculty and staff."

But lawmakers in the Idaho Senate were persuaded by opponents who countered that allowing firearms at universities would only accelerate conflict and leave students and faculty in fear, not knowing who might pull a gun over a poor grade, broken romance, drunken fraternity argument or an altercation at a football game.

"This bill will introduce a greater degree of danger on college campuses and will forever alter the dynamic between students and faculty, and among faculty," said Michael Blankenship, a criminal justice professor at Boise State University. "Will the next student who becomes distraught during a discussion resort to violence? Will the next student who receives a bad grade resort to violence? What about the next faculty member who is denied tenure?"

Joe Black, a University of Idaho student and registered lobbyist in Boise representing the interests of the university's undergraduate students, said that personally, he was relieved.

"It's such a difficult and sensitive situation to debate. There are so many hypotheticals," Black told The Press.

The University of Idaho's undergraduate students were predominantly opposed to the measure, he said, although there were some pro-gun students who supported the bill.

"When the Legislature is railing against the federal government, it's hard to take them seriously when they want to take local control away from us," Black said. "By removing the university's right to set a policy, that takes the students' voice completely out of the equation."

Idaho law now gives university and college presidents authority to prohibit firearms on campus. Boise State University, Idaho State University, the University of Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College and several community colleges have adopted their own policies to ban firearms.

Republican Sen. Russ Fulcher of Meridian tried to push the bill through the Idaho Senate with amendments to address lawmaker concerns over provisions that would allow campus visitors to carry firearms at athletic events and performance venues.

But Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill argued that by considering the changes, the committee was acknowledging there were indeed times and places where guns were not appropriate on college campuses.

"Yet in our typical legislative arrogance, we think that we know better where those times and places are, better than those that we have charged with the duty to safeguard and manage and take responsibility for those on our campuses," said Hill, of Rexburg.

"Once again we demonstrate, as we have before, that our lips preach local control but our hearts are far from it," Hill said.

Republican Sen. Russ Fulcher's motion to advance the measure with amendments failed on a 6-3 vote, leaving the bill to languish in committee.

Texas lawmakers are also considering legislation this year to allow college students and professors to carry guns, adding momentum to a national campaign to open campuses to firearms. Texas would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option, and several have allowed handguns.

In Idaho, the firearms debate hit home for Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, whose 23-year-old son died from a gunshot wound to the chest at a Boise party eight years ago. Cameron Wade Davis, a Boise State University student, was shot off campus by another student carrying a concealed weapon.

Davis, an Idaho Falls attorney, sits on the Senate panel that heard the campus firearms bill on Friday. He interjected shortly after University of Idaho law student Jonathan Sawmiller argued that students with guns were responsible citizens and not, as some would suggest, drunken frat boys stumbling around firing indiscriminately.

"Please be sensitive in couching your remarks," Davis said. "This is not an intellectual exercise for me and my family."

Staff writer Maureen Dolan contributed to this report.