DENVER – Republican legislators have rolled out two bills regarding carrying of concealed weapons on school campuses, the first of which will go before a committee Tuesday afternoon.

Senate Bill 5, which would establish a third exception to regulations governing carrying concealed weapons on public school property, will be reviewed Tuesday by the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

Majority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Parker, sponsor of SB 5, said the bill is not about more guns on school campuses, but more training for those who are carrying guns.

Current regulations mandate that only law enforcement officers and security guards retained by the school district may carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

“We have one provision, one exception to the prohibition, for people who have a very high level of training, and we have another for people who are not required to have any training at all – security guards,” Holbert said last week.

The bill would allow school districts that want to allow employees to carry concealed firearms on campus to establish a required training level and the number of personnel who could carry weapons, but it does not mandate it, he said.

“If a community, a school district, a school board is just opposed to training, opposed to having anyone armed on campus, I think they are empowered now, and they would be under Senate Bill 5, to say ‘no,’” he said.

The bill was announced by Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, on the opening day of the session and came under fire from Democrats in both chambers.

Senate Minority Leader Lucía Guzmán, D-Denver, said, “Giving an item like a gun and teaching someone to use it, and putting that in our classrooms is very short-sighted, and I think somewhat not only unreliable, but unsafe.”

Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, said as a former teacher she was concerned over what might happen if firearms were misplaced by teachers or taken away by students in higher grade level.

“You kinda think about schools as little kids with a big teacher, in the high school it’s little teachers with big kids,” McLachlan said. “I could easily be overcome by students wanting my gun.”

Guzmán said the training would take away time from teacher’s professional development, when they learn how to be better instructors, so they could instead learn to be protectors.

“Why would we want to take that kind of precious time away from them?” Guzmán said.

For McLachlan, the bill is a nonstarter, she said.

“It’s a scary thing to have teachers with guns in school,” McLachlan said. “I’m sure there’s a lot of reasons they will argue why they should, but I don’t believe that one.”

In response, Holbert said “I certainly appreciate the representative has the opportunity to take her own position. I hope that she give some thought that opposing this bill does uphold a standard that there’s no training required of security guards.”

The disparity between the two current exemptions is the inspiration for this bill, Holbert said.

However, under the bill only school district employees would be required to have the training. Contracted security guards would not, unless a district required it.

“A school district could still contract with private security and not require training,” Holbert said.

The decision on training requirement for private security would be left to individual school districts to avoid placing additional regulations on schools, he said. “I want to be real careful that I’m not making a new mandate.”

Colorado’s history of gun violence on school campuses is a powerful factor behind the bill, he said.

“I think the gun-free-zone concept has proven itself to be a very bad idea,” he said. “The people who have perpetrated the worst crimes in our schools I think have recognized that there isn’t anyone there to stand up to their threat and performance of violence.”

House Bill 1036 will go before the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, the so-called “kill committee’ for House Democrats, on Feb. 8.

The bill aims to remove the limitations on personnel to carry concealed handguns on school campuses.

Unlike SB 5, the bill does not require a certain level of training, nor would it be limited to school district employees.

H.B. 1036 was assigned to the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs committee when it was announced.

“The House State Affairs Committee has simply become a repository for bills the speaker deems unfit for a fair hearing,” a release from the GOP last week said.

The Democrats hold the committee with a 6-to-3 majority.

Last week House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, said the placement by the Democrat caucus was at odd with the pledges of bipartisan politics that preceded the session.

Julie Popp, communications director for 9-R, said Superintendent Dan Snowberger would be more closely evaluating the guns on campus legislation before releasing a statement.

lperkins@durangoherald.com

This story has been updated to correct the city where Chris Holbert resides. It is Parker.

Other education bills considered by Legislators

Two additional pieces of legislation concerning education were discussed Monday in committees.

House Bill 1042 would increase the funding for full-day kindergarten students from 58 percent to 66 percent of the per-pupil payment.

Rep. James Wilson, R-Salida, said the failure to fully fund full-day kindergarten occurs despite the fact that most schools districts offer full-day programs.

Some schools, such as Durango School District 9-R, pull money from its budget to cover their kindergarten programs at the expense of other educational programs, Wilson said.

“They’ve done it for over 20 years,” he said. “Annually they invest $1.4 million out of their budget to fully fund their kindergarten program. What could they do with $1.4 million if that were freed up?”

H.B. 1042 passed 9--4 and forwarded to the House Appropriations Committee, where it will be considered along with other bills that change how funds are spent as part of the state budgeting process.

House Bill 1038, which prohibits the use of corporal punishment by employees and volunteers for public schools, licensed child care centers and family child care homes, also passed the education committee, 11-2, and heads to the full House for a second reading.

“This is a policy that is arcane and obsolete in modern-day society,” Rep. Susan Lontine, D-Denver, said in a release from House Democrats. “Why should it be OK for a grown person to hit a little kid? The answer is, it’s not.”

Wilson said his only concern with H.B. 1038 is that most school districts have a policy banning the use of corporal punishment, and passing the bill would represent a duplication of effort, which is problematic for smaller school districts.

“Going in and changing the statutes, going through all that, that involves people hours, and we don’t have the people larger districts have,” Wilson said. “No argument with the piece, no one wants to hurt a child.