Iowa bill creates $3M fund so schools could buy guns, train staff

DES MOINES — Iowa House Republicans are proposing a $3 million grant program schools could use to pay for firearms and training for their staff under a bill advancing in the Legislature.

A committee Wednesday approved House Study Bill 692, amending it to create a grant program that schools could use to purchase guns, add infrastructure, pay for training and provide stipends to staff who participate in training to receive a permit to carry weapons on school grounds.

The bill originally would have used that $3 million to allow schools to purchase radio equipment that would communicate with a statewide emergency response system. But that program will be replaced by federal funding, said Rep. Carter Nordman, a Republican from Panora.

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Gov. Kim Reynolds devoted $6 million to emergency communication radios for school districts as part of a $100 million school safety initiative in 2022 using federal COVID-19 relief money. All radios purchased under that program have been delivered to schools and 90 percent have been installed, said her spokesperson, Kollin Crompton. Reynolds will reopen the program for any schools that did not participate, he said.

The $3 million in state funds instead would be used to implement a new permitting process House lawmakers hope to create under a separate bill, House File 2586, to create a permitting process for school staff to carry firearms at public and private schools.

Iowa law already allows for approved staff to carry a gun on school grounds, but insurers are hesitant to cover schools that arm their staff. Two districts in Northwest Iowa rescinded plans to allow teachers to carry handguns last year after their insurance carrier threatened to drop their coverage.

The bills were introduced by House Republicans in the wake of January’s fatal shooting at Perry High School, just days before the start of the legislative session. Eleven-year-old Ahmir Jolliff and Principal Dan Marurger were killed and six others were injured. The 17-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Republicans who support the move to allow teachers and other school staff to carry guns say that professionally trained staff are the fastest and most effective way of responding to a school shooting.

Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, referenced a 2019 shooting at West Freeway Church in Texas, which lasted only six seconds before a member of the church’s volunteer security team fatally shot the assailant.

“Six seconds is how long it took in Texas for someone with character using the gun the right way to eliminate the threat in that church and prevent further loss of life,” he said. “It is not about the gun, it is about the character of the person holding the gun.”

Democrats decried the decision to devote state funds to purchase guns in schools, saying stricter gun control measures were needed to prevent shootings. While Democrats supported the bill in subcommittee, they ultimately voted against it in Wednesday’s committee meeting after the amendment was made.

Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, said lawmakers should be focusing on bills Democrats have introduced to curb access to guns.

“The solution to school shootings cannot be state money to put more guns in schools,” Zabner said. “That is ridiculous, it is shameful, it’s not a solution to the problem.”

What else is in the bill?

HSB 692 would also require public and private school districts to conduct a review of their ability to keep students safe in active shooter scenarios.

It calls for creating a task force including different state and local safety and education agencies that would make recommendations for updated school infrastructure building codes, which new buildings would need to follow.

The bill would set up a pilot program for the state to provide three schools with grants to set up firearm detection software that would be able to detect guns with existing security camera systems. Those districts would then need to submit a report about the effectiveness of the program to the Legislature this year.

The bill would also require that school districts have a radio used to communicate with the Statewide Interoperable Communication System, which is used by law enforcement to respond to emergencies.

Senate Republicans advance armed staff bill

Senate Republicans advanced a bill passed by House Republicans to create a new permitting process for school districts to voluntarily arm trained staff.

A three-member Senate subcommittee voted Wednesday 2-1 to send HF 2586 to the full Senate Education Committee after listening to critics and supporters. House Republicans passed the bill out of that chamber last week.

Jodi Thomas, board president of the Cherokee school district, said the bill provides more safety and response support than currently is available to some Iowa school districts. The school district, along with Spirit Lake Community School District, put in place, but later rescinded, a policy to arm school staff.

Critics cited risks to staff and students. A study by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence found more than 100 publicly reported incidents of mishandled guns at schools in the last five years.

Opponents said an armed teacher is much more likely to shoot a student bystander, or get in the way of responding law enforcement, than to be an effective solution to an active shooter in a school.

Rather, they said, lawmakers should instead pursue evidence-based intervention strategies and a comprehensive approach that addresses school gun violence, including increasing student belonging, mental health supports, de-escalation techniques and school-based crisis intervention programs.

“I know that this bill for me makes me feel unsafe,” Trey Jackson, a senior at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines and volunteer legislative coordinator with the Iowa Chapter of Brady United Against Gun Violence.

Jackson cited examples from other states of firearms left unattended in bathrooms and a teacher workroom by school resource officers, security guards, a teacher and a vice principal.

“It means that this bill is going to put more guns in the hands of students, and frankly I find that profoundly nonsensical,” he told lawmakers. “I don't understand why we're focusing on reactionary policies — why we're saying school shootings are always going to happen at such a high rate that we might as well just put guns in schools. … So I ask that we focus more on preventative policies rather than reactionary.”

In order to receive a professional permit to carry weapons, employees would have to pass an annual background check and complete a firearms safety course, in addition to one-time legal training, as well as annual communication and emergency medical trainings approved by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, plus quarterly live-firearms training.

Clint Profit, an employee at Spirit Lake Community School District, said school staff trained with local police for various active shooter scenarios and ran numerous drills in an abandoned school, with a goal of confronting an armed intruder within 30 seconds. Profit noted it took law enforcement about seven minutes to respond to the Perry High School shooting.

“Six to seven minutes down to 30 seconds. That's going to save lives,” Profit said.