Senate Bill 1254 “Campus Carry” is right for the State of Idaho and our college campuses. We would not support the bill if we believed it would endanger our students, faculty or staff. When opponents say there should be local control, we want you to remember real local control belongs with law abiding citizens, not elected college trustees.

We want to point out the bill extends the allowance of concealed weapons on campus only to retired police officers, who have had extensive training, and to those who hold an enhanced concealed weapons permit. With the enhanced permit the person must be at least 21years old, be fingerprinted, have a records check for criminal and a mental health records and extensive training that includes live fire training.

Having a strict “No guns on campus” policy does not guarantee a “no violence zone.” College of Western Idaho adjunct professor Clayton Cramer gave a statement in favor of S1254. His thoughts and research on this matter, which he has given me permission to share, are as follows: “While there is very little violent crime on Idaho campuses, I have one great concern: random acts of mass murder in these gun-free zones. The frequency of such mass murders has been rising, while overall murder rates have fallen. Fixing the broken mental health system would do a lot of good, but no one much cares about that. The FBI’s recent report on active shooter murders 2000 through 2012 identified 104 such incidents. Three ended when victims shot the killer, example: Jeanne Assam shot a mentally ill mass murderer in the lobby of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007. Another fourteen incidents ended when victims, in the words of the FBI report, “subdued” the killer. At least some of these incidents involved victims subduing the killer by using a gun as a threat, such as Appalachian Law School, in 2002, where two students retrieved handguns from their cars to make the mentally ill killer surrender. At Clackamas Mall in December of 2012, the killer found himself in the sights of a concealed weapon permit holder, at which point he committed suicide.”

Concealed weapons on college campuses have been allowed for many years in at least six other states, including Colorado and Utah. So what is being proposed is not a pilot project; it is being done successfully elsewhere. In 2002 Utah began allowing concealed carry on college campuses, except for the University of Utah which began allowing them in 2006 after it lost a court case. Overall the statistics show no increase in violence due to this policy. The research does not suggest any of the Utah Universities were less safe or became less safe because of concealed carry. Statistics are similar in the other five states. Currently there are 92 college campuses that allow firearms carried by students that are permitted to legally carry. None of them has any incidence of firearms violence.

There is no credible evidence that allowing retired police officers and those who legally carry with an enhanced carry permit will cause increased violence on a college campus. There is strong evidence that active shooter incidents are or can be stopped by someone carrying a concealed weapon.

In the words of a cop on the street that lives it every day, from the hearing held February 12, Paul Jagosh of the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police said, “You hear stuff about, well; if a kid gets stressed he’s going to shoot a professor. … I hate to break it to you, but guns are allowed on campus right now. There are no preventive measures to prevent a person from bringing a gun on campus.” Questioned by Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, Jagosh said, “There’s a piece of paper that says guns aren’t allowed, but there’s nothing to prevent them. We believe that this will actually make the public safer.” He said, “I’m telling you we will put our lives on our line, we will die for you, while everyone else is running out of the building, we’ll put our lives on the line to protect you. But unfortunately there is going to be delays in our response, and that’s unfortunate. We believe that law-abiding, mentally sound people should have the ability to carry guns.”

We believe this bill will have the potential to make our college campuses, its students, faculty and staff much safer.