Testimony: ‘A safe campus,’ ‘We are defenseless,’ ‘A deterrent’

Jerry Beck, president of the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, speaking against HB 222, said, “We currently have a safe campus. I can’t tell you that this will make it more safe or less safe. … Utah did pass this bill. I would ask you to ask the presidents of those institutions what has happened in the past year since that has happened.”

Beck told the House State Affairs Committee, “On behalf of 9,000 students and a community who has not made a  single request to have weapons on campus, not one. … I still don’t have a single comment from a single community member or a single student on this issue. .. I would ask you to let local control work. Let the people who have the responsibility of keeping our educational system safe put in place the policies and procedures that we need to have from our experience to do that.”

Charlotte Twight, a professor of economics at Boise State University who said she was speaking only for herself, said she’s strongly in favor of HB 222, because she thinks people with concealed weapons permits, like her, should be able to carry their guns on campus. “Permit holders have taken a class and know their legal responsibilities,” she said. “I narrowly escaped being attacked on campus after dark a few years ago. … Existing policy announces to criminals that we are defenseless on campus.”

Joel Teuber of the Fraternal Order of Police also spoke in support of HB 222. “Are we getting to the point where we’re allowing offenders and criminals to carry on campus but the law-abiding and police cannot?” he asked. “If armed citizens can stop the tragedy before we arrive, isn’t that a good thing?” He said armed students are a “deterrent” to mass school shootings.  “Gun-free zones do not deter criminals, just the law-abiding,” he said.