GOP lawmakers in the Iowa House are advancing a bill that sets standards for arming school employees. The proposal passed by the House Public Safety Committee (HSB 675) creates a permit for staff members who could carry firearms in school buildings, if a school district chooses to allow it.
The permit would require an annual background check and firearm safety training along with regular training on how to communicate with law enforcement, how to respond to medical emergencies and practice in live simulations.
Public Safety Committee chair Rep. Phil Thompson, R-Boone, said the bill is a response to events like the deadly school shooting in Perry last month.
“At the end of the day, response time in a desperate situation like this really is everything,” Thompson said. “And we need to give districts and staff the tools they need to protect our children and protect themselves.”
Thompson was asked what kinds of guns school staff could carry, where the guns would be stored and who would pay for them. Those would all be up to the districts themselves to decide, he said.
At a subcommittee meeting on the bill held Monday, Hannah Hayes of Students Demand Action said having more guns in schools would not make her feel safer.
“My experience leads me to emphasize the importance of allowing teachers to teach and not utilize weapons,” said Hayes, a senior at Des Moines Roosevelt High School. “It takes resources away from actual solutions such as mental health support, conflict resolution programs and other preventative measures and impacts the learning environment by making us feel like we're living in a war zone and not at school.”
Spirit Lake Supt. David Smith told the subcommittee that it is already possible for districts to allow teachers to carry guns. His district adopted a policy in 2022 that was set to take effect this school year, but it was repealed after the district’s insurance carrier, EMC, threatened to drop coverage.
“EMC told us they were going to terminate our insurance, so we had to go away from it and we're struggling to find a new carrier,” he said.
Smith said he wants to allow teachers to carry guns so they can intervene if a shooting happens. He mentioned Dan Marburger, the principal of Perry High School, who was killed while trying to protect students in last month’s attack.
“All I'm asking is to give those people a chance to go home to their families, unlike the Perry principal, because we know once the shooter is addressed they engage with us. They stop killing other people,” Smith said.
The bill attempts to ensure that districts allowing teachers to carry guns can buy insurance. It grants school districts qualified immunity to protect them from lawsuits. Thompson said he believes that with qualified immunity, and standards for permit holders, schools will be able to find affordable insurance.
Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said it should give lawmakers pause that insurance companies have second thoughts about covering schools that arm teachers.
“If the risk is too high for insurance companies, the risk is too high for me,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “Putting more children in the line of fire is frightening.”
The original bill required school districts with more than 8,000 students to hire school resource officers to be stationed at buildings with high school students. That would have covered 11 districts statewide including Davenport, Sioux City and Des Moines Public Schools, which ended a school resource officer contract with the Des Moines Police Department in 2021.
As part of an amendment passed with the bill Wednesday, school boards could vote to opt out of the school resource officer requirement. The revised bill would still create a grant program that would award up to $50,000 in matching funds to a district of any size with a school resource officer program.
By passing out of the House Public Safety Committee this week, the bill survives the legislative funnel deadline and moves on to the full Iowa House.
