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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Guns On Campus Tests Local Control

There's no need to get up in arms over the proposal to broaden people's ability to carry guns on Idaho university and college campuses. In fact, there's no need to do anything. Legislators have had the good sense and necessary respect to allow campus administrations to determine their own gun policies. And why wouldn't they? Idaho reveres local control. Federal mandates meet stiff resistance when they cross state lines; in some cases, "free money" from our nation's capital is rejected or at least spent with a serious scowl. Even ultimata issuing forth from Boise aren't always embraced in the outlands with the same sense of cooperation legislators intend or expect. The guns-on-campus debate is no different. Whether you're a hawk or a dove is absolutely irrelevant. This is a litmus test for local control, and the test-takers are members of the 2014 Idaho Legislature. They're entertaining a version of the gun suggestion that was shot down in 2011, and apparently, they need to be reminded why many pro-Second Amendment Idahoans think it's just a bad idea/Coeur d'Alene Press Editorial Board. More here.

Question: Who should decide whether we have guns on campus -- the Idaho Legislature of the local college Board of Trustees?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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