Starting July 1, students, staff and visitors to Idaho's college and university campuses will be legally allowed to carry concealed guns with a permit. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed Senate Bill 1254 into law Wednesday, making Idaho the seventh state to allow guns on campuses.
In his signing statement, Otter writes, “As elected officials, we have a sworn responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States - not only when doing so is easy, convenient or without cost, but especially when it is not.”
Idaho's eight college and university presidents opposed the legislation. Boise State University's president Bob Kustra is among them.
“I’m puzzled for the simple fact that our campuses in Idaho are safe now,” he said in a recent interview. “We’ve had no incidents that require average citizens to be armed on our campuses. The bill really seems to be a solution in search of a problem that has not occurred on our campuses - in Idaho anyway.”
The bill will allow concealed carry permit holders to have their firearms on campus, except in dorms or venues with more than 1,000 people.
A Boise State spokesman declined to comment.
Here is Gov. Otter's full statement:
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