New bill to arm Idaho teachers surfaces in Senate
Published at
Ryan Suppe and Kevin Richert, IdahoEdNews.org
BOISE (IdahoEdNews.org) — A Senate committee Friday introduced a new bill that would allow school staff to carry guns on campus. That’s after a similar bill, from Rep. Ted Hill, easily cleared the House but stalled in the Senate.
The new version — co-sponsored by Hill, R-Eagle — still gives school staff with enhanced concealed carry permits the right to have a weapon on school grounds. But it has additional training requirements, and it gives local school boards some discretion to regulate guns on campus.
“This provides for local control,” co-sponsoring Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, told the Senate State Affairs Committee.
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The previous iteration, House Bill 415, faced vigorous opposition from groups representing school trustees, administrators and resource officers over its lack of training requirements and local discretion. But House Republicans overwhelmingly supported it.
The new bill requires school boards to develop policies authorizing staff with concealed carry permits to possess a gun on campus. Those policies would have to be implemented by July 1, 2026.
To get an enhanced concealed carry permit, applicants must complete eight hours of classroom training and fire a minimum of 98 practice rounds.
Guthrie and Hill’s bill would add annual requalification training along with active shooter training. School boards could impose additional training requirements. But Guthrie told Idaho Education News that lawmakers could limit that discretion in the future if local boards are too stringent, like requiring staff to be a “green beret” to qualify.
“We’ve dealt with this for a lot of years, but we think that, maybe, this is the right balance,” he told the Senate committee.
The bill could return for a public hearing in the coming days or weeks.