Iowa House passes bill that would give schools grant money to arm staff, detect guns

DES MOINES — Iowa House lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that includes a grant program school districts could use to purchase guns and provide training to arm staff.

House File 2652 passed 59-35, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats and one Republican opposed.

The bill was amended to strip out a $3 million appropriation 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 still creates the grant program, but does not include a specific appropriation to fund the program. That amount will be determined later during the budget process, said Rep. Carter Nordman, a Republican from Panora and the bill’s lead sponsor.

Money from the grant program would be used to implement a new permitting process for school staff to carry firearms at public and private schools, which would be created under a separate House-passed bill.

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 Marburger were killed and six others were injured. The 17-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

  Buy Photo

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.

“No parent should have to worry about their student's safety. No spouse should have to worry about their significant other coming home from a day of teaching,” Nordman said. “School should be a place for students and teachers to grow and learn. This bill in front of us offers solutions. The bill we passed last week offers solutions.”

  Buy Photo

Democrats decried the decision to provide taxpayer dollars for firearms training and incentives to arm school staff, citing safety concerns and risks to staff and students, and saying stricter gun control measures were needed to prevent shootings.

“I realize that this doesn't directly appropriate the money, but it does create a program that allows for that to happen,” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said during floor debate. “I have concerns, fundamentally, about spending taxpayer dollars to put more guns in our schools, and I oppose the bill.”

The bill would also provide $3 million from the 911 emergency communications fund to set up a pilot program for the state to provide schools with grants to set up firearm detection software that would be able to detect guns with existing security cameras.

Those districts would then need to submit a report about the effectiveness of the program to the Legislature on or before Dec. 15.

The bill was amended to require any gun-detection software used by school districts be designated as a qualified anti-terrorism technology by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The designation limits the provider’s liability in the event of a terrorist attack.

Rep. Mark Cisneros of Muscatine, the lone Republican to vote against the bill, spoke against the amendment. As amended, Cisneros said, the bill would exclude districts already working with vendors to implement AI gun detection software that lack the federal designation, and would stifle competition.

Schools would also be required to purchase radio equipment that would communicate with a statewide emergency response system.

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. The governor’s office will reopen the program for any schools that did not participate, Nordman said.

HF 2652 bill 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.

“This bill will make our students safer by investing in infrastructure and technology that we know will make our school buildings more secure,” Nordman said. “ … Democrats would pass restrictive gun laws, but none of the gun control bills that we've heard from Democrats would have prevented what happened in Perry” and in other school shootings in the state.

Nordman pointed to a recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll that found 60 percent of Iowans favor allowing teachers and school staff to carry guns in school if they complete training. The number rises to 65 percent among parents with children school-aged children.

“The unfortunate reality remains that bad things can still happen,” he said. “Rather than live in denial of that, House Republicans are working to lower response time to school emergencies.

The bill now heads to the Iowa Senate for consideration.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com