BILL: Best step to school safety

During the current Idaho State Legislative session there has been a guns in schools bill (H415) that is actually very irresponsible. Thanks to Sen. Jim Guthrie (District 28), Chair of the Senate State Affairs Committee, it has been re-written into a reasonable, responsible and well-regulated bill (S1418).

I want to commend Sen. Guthrie for his tremendous effort and the amount of work he put into getting this bill to the point of being the closest we will ever get to an acceptable guns in schools law in Idaho. I am not a fan of all or most of the school districts in Idaho allowing employees to be armed. In the last several years, the proposals for bills allowing armed school employees have been unacceptable and scary. 

S1418 is the first bill that comes close to being something that the general public can be even a little bit comfortable with. Sen. Guthrie worked tirelessly with the sponsors of H415 to come up with compromises and a workable bill in S1418. I want to thank him and the other senators on the SSA Committee who supported it — James Ruchti, Melissa Wintrow and Abby Lee. 

Many opponents who testified against S1418 want to go back to H415 and try to pass it. H415 has little regulation of armed school employees, takes control of armed school employees away from local school boards and allows any school employee with a concealed carry permit to be armed. 

H415 is a Second Amendment bill; S1418 is a school safety bill. Let’s protect kids in schools, not gun rights for everyone who works there. 

ALICE ARAMBARRI 

Coeur d’Alene