‘Desperate need to secure our schools’: Idaho bill would let teachers carry concealed guns

Idaho lawmakers could soon allow teachers and other school employees to carry concealed weapons on school grounds and shield information about the staffers armed at school from public records requests.

Rep. Edward Hill, R-Eagle, introduced a bill Monday that would let public school staffers who have “enhanced” concealed weapons permits to carry firearms on campuses. Employees would not need permission from administrators or the school board. The legislation would also require every school to remove any “gun-free zone” signs or face a fine. The changes would not apply to universities.

Hill told a legislative committee that the safest course for schools would be to hire full-time security guards, but that it costs too much money.

“There’s a desperate need to secure our schools against people who want to harm our children,” Hill said. “We want to close that gap, those critical 3-5 minutes where all the carnage happens.”

Enhanced permits are available to anyone over 21 who has been an Idaho resident for at least six months, taken an 8-hour gun course, submitted to a background check and been fingerprinted, according to Idaho law. Licenses are issued by the local sheriff.

The proposed bill would also require the employees to have “immediate control” over their concealed weapons while at school.

The staffers would have to inform the school principal of their decision and show them their concealed carry licenses, but the principal isn’t required to share that information with the school board. The school would be required to maintain a list of all their employees licensed to carry guns at school, along with a photo of each employee, and share it with local law enforcement to assist police “in the exercise of their duties.”

The Boise School District opposes “any effort to remove our locally elected school board trustees from the decision-making process,” spokesperson Dan Hollar told the Idaho Statesman by email. “The district will continue to work closely with law enforcement and other security professionals to ensure the safety of students and staff.”

The bill would exempt records that identify armed school staffers from Idaho’s public records law, and it would protect them from any civil or criminal liability for the use of their firearms during a “lethal threat to safety” at the school.

National studies have shown the U.S. has much higher rates of gun deaths than other peer countries. The U.S. also has the highest rate of per capita gun ownership, according to the Small Arms Survey, and some of the least restrictive guns laws in the world.

This story was updated 5:45 p.m. Jan. 23 to include a statement from the Boise School District.

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