Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, noted the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning the Washington, D.C. gun law. "What we're doing here, you got the college saying that people can't pack, and the Supreme Court saying no, they have a right to pack, even if they're on a college." He said, "The thing that saddens me about the whole thing is that we've been debating over an hour on the constitutional privilege that people have in this country to pack a gun. It just behooves me as to why we want to take people's constitutional rights away."

Rep. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know about you, but I want to live in a country and a state where the citizens are armed." He said, "This legislation is legislation that's about protecting the very rights that made America free."

Rep. Donna Pence, D-Gooding, said she holds a concealed weapon permit, but she opposes the bill. "I'm not assured that my public safety on a college campus is going to be protected by people with a gun," she said.

Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, shared a story about an incident from when he was in college at the University of Utah, and a woman who worked in the nearby university hospital was trying to decide whether to carry a gun because an ex had threatened to kill her. "She decided that she would not carry the gun, what she would do is carry a whistle," Hart told the House. "Shortly thereafter ... he met her in the parking lot. ... He killed her. She blew her whistle and nobody came. Her whistle was filled with blood when they found her body."