There are two competing checklists of gun laws, from the conservative and liberal perspectives and the two cannot co-exist, or can they?
Article 2, Section 12 of the Montana Constitution , Right to Bear Arms; “the right of any person to keep or bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called into question, but nothing herein contained shall be held to permit the carrying of a concealed weapon”
At the federal level, 2008 Heller decision clarifies and enshrines the individual right to bear arms (not just associated with a militia), but is not absolute in doing so. For example , the right can be withheld from a felon and the mentally ill and the second amendment does not protect guns typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.
Likely, in the soon to be decision, NY State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. V Bluen, the supreme court will strike down NY’s very restriction concealed carry statutes (since 1913), which will amend the Heller decision’s references to restricting concealed weapons.
In my twenty four years on the Whitefish School Board, I participated in the designs of three schools. We are fortunate to have supportive voters and a growing tax base allowing us to construct safe, comfortable learning environments. I recall school safety as a key component of school design. I was likely obnoxiously persistent and as school shootings increased, so did my insistence on safe schools in respect to tight controls on entering our buildings. I also supported essential soft skills related to school safety. We developed a communications plan that asked all employees from the custodian and lunch room workers to teachers and counselors to communicate with students and pass on concerns to their supervisors. I recall my efforts to institute a modified block schedule within Whitefish High School to enhance instructional practices and allow for more collegial relationships among staff members and their students. I recall the first time we hired, in conjunction with the WFPD, and if I recall correctly and old DARE Grant, our first school resource officer. Our current chief, Bridger Kelch, was an early and highly effective school resource officer, earning the trust of our students and the ability to preempt potential dangerous situations.
We need and deserve safe schools and to reach that goal I’m convinced we need ideas from both checklists. The vast majority of gun owners are good citizens and their second amendment rights should not be altered. But at the same time an effective red flag law, where under a court order and strict procedures of due process, firearms can be removed from a person deemed harmful to himself or an institution such as a school. If an individual effected by a red flag law does not face a meaningful background check, he can easily repurchase a weapon. A hardened school with a district police force failed in Uvalde red state, Texas, and a red flag law available to intervene failed to be implemented in blue state New York, leading to a supermarket massacre.
Gun debates represent the most toxic of political discourse in the United States. As with abortion, and border policy, the American public is somewhere in the middle of extreme positions. Americans deserve statesmanship in reconciling difficult elements of public policy. Lacking this and enduring the lowest common denominator when it comes to such discourse, we can hope for divine intervention or the equivalent to set us on a path of correction.