Idaho’s lax guns laws send a message to guys like the Boise shooter: Welcome to Idaho

Here we are once again, America, this time at a mall in Boise, Idaho, where a gunman went on a public shooting spree, killing two innocent people, Jo Acker and Roberto Padilla Arguelles, before dying in a shootout with police.

And once again, we are finding out that the warning bells were going off like a five-alarm fire in the months leading up to the shooting.

Idaho State Police “flagged” Jacob Bergquist when he was spotted open carrying in the Idaho State Capitol, seeking an audience with Gov. Brad Little to talk about making sure that guys like him — a convicted felon from another state — could still possess firearms in a state like Idaho.

Meridian police, too, had a run-in with him in Walmart where he worked and was open carrying, which is against the policy of that private business, according to KTVB. Bergquist became verbally abusive to the manager, according to police, and stormed off.

Boise Police officers came into contact with him, again open carrying, practically daring officers to bust him for jaywalking, apparently “trying to elicit contact in order to have a confrontation with” police, according to one officer.

Boise police located his YouTube channel, Guns N Rodents, which was devoted to gun culture and showed “very racist” attitudes toward Central Americans, according to police.

Bergquist was unhinged, and it seems like every police agency in the Treasure Valley knew it — but could do nothing.

The best we can do, apparently, is just to watch and wait until someone like Bergquist kills someone.

How frustrating it must be for a law enforcement officer in Idaho when your experience, training, knowledge and instincts tell you something’s not right — but there’s nothing you can do until you get the call, “Shots fired at the mall, people down.”

Then, you can do something — but not a minute before.

Bergquist was convicted in 2012 in Cook County, Illinois, of theft of more than $300, a Class 3 felony, punishable by 2-5 years in prison.

Because the conviction carries a sentence exceeding one year, such a conviction bars him from possessing firearms under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968.

However, under Idaho law, theft is not a corresponding crime that is included on a list that can get you banned from possessing a firearm.

Idaho Code 18-310 provides a long list of felonies for which a convicted felon may not get their gun ownership rights restored. Among those are murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, kidnapping, rape and a whole host of lewd conduct and sexual abuse charges, even indecent exposure — so there’s some recognition by the Idaho Legislature that there are “some people” out there who shouldn’t have a gun.

Notably, people convicted of felony possession of a controlled substance are also on the list. Bergquist at one point was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance in Wisconsin, but he pleaded down to a misdemeanor.

It was later when Bergquist was charged and convicted of theft in Illinois. As it turns out, that charge has no corollary on Idaho’s list of felonies that get you banned from owning a firearm.

“The fact that Idaho let someone who is prohibited by law to carry a firearm in the state is an example of Idaho’s extremely permissive attitude around guns, and it shows up in their gun death rate,” Allison Anderman, senior counsel and director of local policy for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a phone interview.

The Giffords Law Center gives Idaho an “F” for its combination of lax gun laws and higher rate of gun deaths, and ranks Idaho 48th out of 50 states for gun-law strength, based on analysis of 55 policies, Anderman said.

“Idaho has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, and took action to expand its dangerous permitless carry law in 2020,” according to the Giffords Law Center. “To save lives from gun violence, lawmakers should require background checks on all firearm purchases and enact an extreme risk protection order law to allow for the temporary removal of firearms from individuals in crisis.”

You would think that Idaho legislators might want to look at the sections of Idaho code that allowed Bergquist to possess firearms in Idaho.

That’s probably not going to happen in a Statehouse that is constantly looking to weaken gun laws rather than look for ways to protect the citizenry with stronger, fair, common-sense measures.

“I don’t believe that there’s anything related to a theft charge in another state that would ever really ring our bell as something that should permanently deprive someone of their constitutional rights,” state Rep. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, who is chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Idaho Press.

Oh, well. Shrug your shoulders. Nothing we can do. Just wait for the next shooting, I guess.

State Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, is no stranger to the gun debate in Idaho.

A couple of years ago, she tried to get state law to simply match up with existing federal law when it comes to domestic violence offenders having guns.

In 2018, Wintrow introduced a bill that would have prevented convicted domestic abusers from owning guns. It got shot down, 39-31, in the House.

Federal law bans anyone convicted of a misdemeanor or felony domestic violence charge from possessing a firearm, but even though the law applies to all 50 states, the federal statute is contingent on matching state laws in order for local officials and judges to enforce the ban, according to The Associated Press.

Following the Boise Towne Square mall shooting, Wintrow doesn’t sound optimistic that anything will happen.

“I think what’s reasonable is to have the discussion and try to drop political lines and really put our heads together when we see a tragedy like that,” Wintrow said in a phone interview. “I think it’s a really reasonable thing to have that discussion. I don’t know that we’re in a position in the Legislature that we’re there.”

In fact, Idaho has headed in the exact opposite direction, having passed laws in 2014 and another one this year that prohibit aiding in enforcing federal gun laws.

Idaho’s relatively lax gun laws apparently attracted Bergquist to Idaho, according to an Idaho State Police trooper who listened in on a conversation Bergquist had with a receptionist at the office of Idaho Gov. Brad Little in April.

Bergquist, who was open carrying a holstered handgun on his hip inside the Capitol, requested an audience with Little to “to get his thoughts on persons convicted of felonies being able to carry guns,” according to the state trooper.

Let that sink in for a minute. A guy who fired off 18 rounds, killed two people, injured four and fired at police officers was in the governor’s office just a few months before.

Bergquist was an advocate for getting rid of prohibited possessor lists in various states so that felons can possess firearms, even carrying them into the state Capitol and right on into the governor’s office.

Bergquist “was trying to get the word out to others that they, too, could carry in Idaho,” according to the trooper.

After terrorizing a community through a public shooting rampage, Bergquist is a poster child for exactly the type of bad guy we don’t want having guns in Idaho.

Unfortunately, the state’s gun laws and politics send a different message to guys like Bergquist: Welcome to Idaho.

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 4:00 AM.

Scott McIntosh

Opinion Contributor,

Idaho Statesman

208-377-6202

Scott McIntosh is the communities editor and columnist for the Idaho Statesman. A graduate of Syracuse University, he joined the Statesman in August 2019. He previously was editor of the Idaho Press and the Argus Observer and was the owner and editor of the Kuna Melba News. He has been honored for his editorials and columns as well as his education, business and local government watchdog reporting by the Idaho Press Club and the National Newspaper Association. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, The Idaho Way. Support my work with a digital subscription