Idaho lawmaker says schools are ‘soft target’ as GOP tries once more to arm teachers
Public school teachers in Idaho would be allowed to carry concealed weapons in the classroom and act as an “armed protection force” against mass shootings under a bill proposed Tuesday.
“What is it with schools?” bill sponsor Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, told a House committee. “Is it, (attackers) hate children? Or is it a soft target? I think the reality is, it’s a soft target.”
A similar bill Hill introduced last year died when it failed to receive enough support from the Republican-controlled Senate to become law. He aims to get the revised bill to Gov. Brad Little’s desk on a repeat attempt.
Hill asserted that highways in Texas exemplify the way that the presence of guns can inspire good behavior. Motorists there don’t see a lot of middle fingers, he said Tuesday.
“You don’t flip people off in Texas. Why?” Hill said. “Because everybody’s armed. If people think you’re armed, it makes a difference. People are polite.”
That notion also could apply to Idaho schools, he said. Schools have for too long had insufficient security, Hill said, and arming teachers and other employees on school grounds would help to deter the possibility of a mass shooting.
The push to pass such a law in Idaho dates to at least 2019. Last year, some lawmakers raised concerns about Hill’s bill, questioning the training armed public school employees would receive to carry firearms.
This year’s bill “closed the gap” for those concerns, Hill said. It would require public school employees who want to carry concealed weapons to take at least an “enhanced” concealed weapons training course or a Police Officer Standards Training, the same one used to certify police across the state, Hill said.
The bill also would allow school boards to determine the level of training required for these individuals — though they could not deny anyone’s right to carry a weapon on campus if they completed that training.
The House State Affairs Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to introduce the bill for a future public hearing.
More than 30 U.S. states have laws on the books that allow teachers to carry concealed weapons, according to the U.S. Concealed Carry Association. The majority of those states require at least the permission of a school authority, according to a Newsweek analysis of state laws. Hill’s bill requires school districts to allow trained employees to carry concealed weapons.
Arming teachers should be ‘top-down’ effort, lawmaker said
On Tuesday, Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, asked whether Hill’s bill would allow school boards to tell their employees that they weren’t allowed to carry weapons on school grounds. That would be a clear no, Hill said.
“There’s certain school boards that will say, ‘No, we’re going to stay here as a sheep’s pen. We’re never going to do anything,’ ” he said. “We’re going to come in and say, ‘No, it’s not. We’re going to defend you because you don’t seem to understand you need to.’
“Security needs to be top-down. It doesn’t emanate from non-professionals.”
Achilles pushed back, noting additional concerns about the proposed law.
“The boards are responsible for what happens in their schools,” he said. “That’s a fundamental principle of federalism here, and for us to do a top-down telling them what to do is not smart.”
Provisions of the bill also would shield information about armed employees from public records requests, Achilles said. It would require principals, superintendents and school boards to “maintain the confidentiality” of employees with license to carry weapons at school.
“There’s no transparency on who’s carrying a weapon here,” Achilles said.
That’s an advantage, Hill said. The lack of information around who’s carrying a gun could have a deterrent effect, he said.
“That will get out — that the word is, teachers are armed,” Hill said. “Even if nobody’s armed in that school, they think they are. That changes the entire complexion of what we’re talking about here.”
Police often cannot respond to mass shootings fast enough to stop the carnage — especially in a scenario where attackers target multiple schools at once. Ideally, he said, schools would have armed guards, but the cost is prohibitive.
“What do you do?” he asked the committee. “You leverage the resources you have. You arm the teachers.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM.
