In January of this year, Idaho brought forth a new bill that may threaten student safety. The new bill would allow teachers and other school staff, including bus drivers, to carry concealed weapons to school. This is not only one of the most horrendous things that Idaho could do, but is also completely unnecessary. The bill was brought forth by Eagle representative Ted Hill.
Idaho, while far from the safest state in the lower 48, is definitely one of the safer ones. According to www.usanews.com, Idaho ranks fifth in the top 10 safest states, with Idaho’s violent crime rate is 243 per 100,000 residents. Because of that, there has been some danger to living here, though it is much more dangerous living in a more populated state, like New York or Texas.
Idaho, in the last five years, has been mostly safe in school aside from one horrible school shooting in Rigby. Thankfully, no one was fatally injured. This bill, if passed would allow any school staff to carry a weapon on school grounds as long as they maintain possession, and are trained under current Idaho gun laws.
The Idaho legislature passing this bill not only means that teachers would fight the ever increasing amount of gun violence with more gun violence. While it is being proposed in the senate right now, it could be passed soon. Though teachers that want to carry concealed weapons can if this bill passes, they will still have to have training to comply with and current Idaho laws. If this bill passes, then schools can do nothing to prevent a teacher or other staff member from bringing that gun into a school building. Schools can’t even say to leave guns in a secure place, as that would infringe on the bill.
The bill, HB 415, is currently going through Idaho legislature, and if it were to go into effect, it would start July 1 of 2024. So, the next school year, 2024-2025, would be when it was put to use in all schools, including elementary schools and private schools in any Idaho school district.
According to a recent poll on Instagram asking the question of, “would you feel safe at school if you knew your teacher had a gun?”, 65% of students responded yes, while 35% responded no. This seems diametrically contrary to school being a safe place for all students.
When asked, multiple teachers have said that they if this bill goes into effect, they are not going to carry guns, as they believe that the only people who should have guns are SROs or school resource officers that have gone through intense training to wield the weapon responsibly.
If anyone feels opposed to this bill, the Idaho legislature is currently in session, so anyone can voice their opinions to their senators deciding over this bill becoming law. This is a disgusting infringement on human rights in Idaho, and this is horrible. Subjecting children, whose only safe space may be school, to an unsafe environment in which they have to worry about if a teacher could potentially be carrying a lethal weapon.
The current legislative sessions can be found at legislature.idaho.gov.
