Gun bills: One dead, one alive

COEUR d’ALENE — A controversial gun bill was shot down this week while another is moving forward in the Idaho Legislature.

A showdown over whether to allow anyone — teachers and members of the public — with a valid, enhanced concealed weapons permit to carry a firearm into an Idaho K-12 school, without the permission of the local school board, won’t be happening during this legislative session.

Rep. Steven Harris, R- Meridian, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, announced Tuesday that House Bill 203, the guns-in-schools legislation, would not be heard this year.

“This will allow more time for stakeholder involvement,” Harris said in a message to The Press.

Another piece of proposed legislation, House Bill 206, which would lower the age limit for concealed carrying of a handgun within city limits from 21 to 18, passed the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday and is headed to the full House for a vote.

Support for each of the bills is divided in Boise and beyond.

The guns-in-schools legislation, introduced Feb. 26 in House State Affairs by Rep. Chad Christensen, R-Ammon, was approved by the committee for printing after a discussion that included pushback from Boise Democrats Reps. John Gannon and Brooke Green.

“I see this as an assault upon local control and local decision-making. It makes our kids less safe in school,” Gannon said, pointing to a section of the legislation that would have prohibited anyone other than a law enforcement officer conducting an investigation from being able to compel an individual to disclose possession of a firearm in a school.

Christensen said that for him, it’s a Second Amendment issue.

“I don’t believe anyone should restrict anyone’s rights to carry in a public area as they see fit,” Christensen said. “I don’t think local government has the authority to restrict when it comes to this.”

He said he brought the legislation forward because he wants children to be safe.

“I don’t want the schools to be a soft target. I feel gun-free zones are a soft target … a would-be bad guy would think twice before going in if he thought the teacher or a principal was carrying a firearm,” he said. “… Bad guys don’t respect gun-free zones. This bill is a deterrent.”

Christensen told the committee that if the bill passed, he would call every police chief and sheriff and ask them to provide quarterly training on deciding when to use a firearm.

Rep. Green, whose husband is in law enforcement, said because the bill did not include a fiscal allowance for such training, it was an unfunded mandate.

A supporter of the legislation was Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Post Falls.

Mendive was one of a long list of Republican legislative co-sponsors that included Reps. John Green of Rathdrum and Vito Barbieri of Dalton Gardens.

“I co-sponsored HB 203 because I believe it starts a conversation about one of the most serious issues facing the Legislature,” Mendive said. “How do we keep Idaho’s classrooms safe?”

Mendive said he doubts most people know the Garden Valley School District in the Boise area has chosen to arm some of its personnel, which is being managed by the local school board.

“The only time an armed teacher in the classroom would be forced to protect his or her students is when all other safety measures fail,” Mendive said. “I believe properly trained teachers that have volunteered could be the least expensive and most effective deterrent to school violence.”

Christensen told the committee that before bringing the proposal forward, he discussed it with many teachers in his legislative district but not with school boards. His district covers rural eastern Bonneville County plus Teton, Caribou, Oneida, Bear Lake and Franklin counties.

“Most teachers are in favor of it in my district. Many school districts in my area are already carrying firearms in school,” he said.

Bruce Twitchell, president of the Coeur d’Alene Education Association, the local teachers union, told school board members in Coeur d’Alene Monday that he surveyed school employees about the legislation. Out of 139 respondents, 62.6 percent were opposed, 31.7 percent were in favor, with several not taking a side.

Christensen said the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the legislation, but the Idaho Sheriffs Association and the Idaho Chiefs of Police had not yet weighed in on Feb. 26.

“Much of the law enforcement community is in favor of it,” Christensen told the committee.

Sgt. Bryan Lovell, with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office and president of the 2,000-member Idaho Fraternal Order of Police, told The Press that the FOP’s legislative committee reviewed House Bill 203 and decided to endorse it.

“We support the concept of it from a school safety standpoint,” Lovell said. “In general, the FOP is in support of responsible people with guns doing responsible things with them. We’re also very concerned about school safety.”

Two other groups representing law enforcement leadership throughout the state came out in strong opposition to the guns-in-schools legislation earlier this week.

“School administrators and elected school boards have the responsibility of providing reasonable policies to promote school safety and we believe such an important decision as to who should carry a firearm on school grounds should be kept local,” said a letter signed by Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger, president of the Idaho Sheriffs Association, and Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury, president of the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association.

The letter said that if local law enforcement does respond to a gun incident at a school, things are “confusing enough without having extra people carrying guns.”

“We believe there is great potential for confrontations under such conditions that could have tragic consequences,” the letter said.

Police Chief Pat Knight in Post Falls and Chief Lee White in Coeur d’Alene each echoed the concerns of their association.

“There have been too many mishaps,” White said. “We’ve had instances before, and it’s not the students. It’s the parents. It’s the relatives, whoever else might be on campus.”

Knight said that in Post Falls, the response time is very quick, and they have school resource officers in the schools.

“Inside a city like we have, in my opinion, SROs are the way to go,” Knight said.

But he acknowledged that not all school districts have those resources. In some rural districts, he said, the police response time could be 20 to 30 minutes. That’s what makes local control more logical than a statewide mandate, he said.

“The locals know best how to run their communities,” he said.

Regarding House Bill 206, the proposed legislation that would allow 18-year-olds to concealed carry firearms without a permit within city limits, Knight said he thinks that should also be a matter of local control.

Since 2016, Idaho law has eliminated the need for a concealed weapons permit in most instances. Under current law, 18-year-olds can carry concealed weapons without a permit outside city limits, but have to be 21 to do the same within a city. An 18-year-old can openly carry a firearm within a city.

Knight said there are concerns an 18-year-old might not have the training and life experience necessary to make a good decision about whether to shoot in a critical moment.

“You also have folks who will tell you it’s wrong to be old enough to go to war, but not old enough to carry a gun,” Knight said.

House Bill 206’s co-sponsors, Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, and Rep. Christy Zito, R-Hammett, said the bill’s purpose is to simplify the state’s gun laws.

“It also points us back to the principle that by giving responsible citizens the ability to defend themselves, we actually lower gun violence and other deaths we wish to prevent,” Young told the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday, adding that crime rates have dropped since permitless carry was enacted in the state.

Reps. Gannon and Green issued a statement registering their opposition to House Bill 206.

Gannon said there is no requirement in the bill for 18-year-olds to have received training or experience with weapons.

“… Some kind of familiarity with them is something we should expect and require before they carry concealed handguns, period,” Gannon said.

Green said she’s concerned because in Idaho, most 18-year-olds are still in high school.

“Kids this age will often hang out with 15- or 16-year-old children. And, it terrifies me to think of a group of kids playing video games, running around the park, or riding bikes while one of the them is holding onto a gun,” Green said. “It’s impossible to guarantee that younger kids will not grab at the gun and potentially cause an accident.”

House Bill 206 was passed out of the House State Affairs Committee Tuesday to be sent to the full House with a “do pass” recommendation.

A hearing is expected to be scheduled within the next few days.