The second batch of bills prefiled ahead of the upcoming legislative session became public Friday, with items among the proposed legislation including a bill that would allow school districts and private schools to authorize employees to carry guns on school property, as well as a bill that would slash corporate income tax to one-third its current rate for new corporations.
Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, introduced the armed school employees bill, House Bill 55.
The bill would amend state law prohibiting the possession of firearms on school property by adding an exemption for a “school employee authorized ... to possess firearms on school grounds.” There is already an exemption for a law enforcement officer “acting within the scope and authority of the officer’s employment.”
School districts and private schools would be able to authorize employees to carry guns if the employees have “completed firearms training acceptable to the commissioner of public safety” and if they adopt a written policy outlining how the guns are carried and when they can be used, under Lynn’s proposal. Any employee carrying a gun would also have to have a permit to do so.
Lynn said the purpose of the bill was to give school districts options for protecting students.
“There’s total freedom of choice on that,” said Lynn. “We’re not mandating anything one way or the other. … I think it’s up to the local school districts as to how they can best protect the kids.”
Lynn cited last month’s school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999 as incidents that influenced him in putting forth the proposal. He said he prefiled the bill before an incident at Dimond High School in Anchorage Tuesday, wherein police took a student into custody after he displayed a BB gun resembling a handgun.
“It wasn’t any particular thing, but I thought it was time,” Lynn said, adding, “It’s not a simple thing. There is no perfect answer. Other things need to be done too, of course, about making sure that the crazy people are receiving proper treatment.”
But Lynn distanced his bill from the broader debate over gun ownership rights.
“I think law-abiding citizens ought to be able to defend themselves, but that’s a whole separate issue,” said Lynn. “Somebody will be trying to make it into that.”
Lynn concluded, “In the meantime, while we do have Second Amendment rights and I hope we keep them, school districts need to address the issue (of student safety) and see what they think is best.”
Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, and two incoming Anchorage Democrats, Reps.-elect Andrew Josephson and Geran Tarr, are sponsoring House Bill 48, which would provide three years of a lower corporate income tax rate for newly incorporated corporations, except those that are created by the purchase or expansion of an existing entity or those that are majority-owned by the owner of an existing corporation “unless the new corporation is in a separate line of business.”
H.B. 48 grants the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development’s commissioner — currently Commissioner Susan K. Bell — authority to define how corporations are determined to be “in a separate line of business” from one another.
Gara said Friday morning that the intent of the bill is to spur economic diversification in Alaska.
“It’s going to take a lot to make Alaska’s economy more diverse so it’s not just resource-dependent,” Gara said. “This is one way we can help promote a more diversified economy.”
Gara added, “We already don’t tax most businesses in the state … but this is also something that we can advertise to people who own companies as we try to bring them up here.”
The bill will not benefit extraction industries, Gara claimed, because the tax break for new corporations only lasts for three years after their incorporation. In that time, he said, extraction companies are typically in the exploration phase, not profiting.
“It would be irresponsible, I think, to take away the public’s revenue indefinitely, but a three-year tax break, I think, makes sense,” said Gara. “It really won’t cost anything. It’ll only raise money, because it only applies to businesses that start up. … So, it’ll actually raise money. And hopefully over the long term, it will raise a lot of money and bring a lot of jobs to Alaska.”
But Gara identified an oil tax cut, such as the one proposed by Republican Gov. Sean Parnell last year, as a potential obstacle to creating a better environment for new business in the state.
“The only thing that could damage that is if the governor gives away $2 billion in oil revenue,” Gara said.
Responding via email to Gara’s assertion, Parnell spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said the governor believes tax reform “must encourage new production” as well as being “simple,” “durable for the long term” and “fair to Alaskans.”
Leighow added, “Oil production drives opportunities for Alaskans. Alaska engineers, contractors and maintenance personnel earn their livelihoods from oil production; indirectly, so do business owners, retailers, and working men and women of all trades. If we stay on the same path of decline, opportunities for Alaskans will diminish.”
All told, 18 bills were prefiled for the second set of prefiled legislation. Last Monday, 56 prefiled bills were made public as the first set. That brings the total of prefiled bills ahead of the legislative session, which begins Tuesday, to 74.
• Contact reporter Mark D. Miller at 523-2279 or at mark.d.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (26)
Add commentIts a great idea!
Teachers, janitors, office staff and anyone else who goes through the training, has a background check and wants to carry a concealed weapon should be allowed to. The next time a would-be gunman thinks there is an easy target inside a school will think twice and if they are insistent in destruction of innocent lives then the school personnel instead of hiding in the closet can pull their weapon and secure their classroom.
We dont hear enough in the media about the lives saved in this country by citizens carrying weapons and stopping idiots in their tracks, it happens more than we are hearing about for sure.
Immediate action.
HB 55 can instantly increase the safety of our school children. While anti-gun activists haggle over sales of scary looking rifles and magazine capacities that, if banned, won't remove the threat of school shootings, allowing school staff to conceal carry will allow immediate protection of our students. Get behind this bill. We can't legislate away murderers. But, we can let capable school employees arm themselves against these whackos. Currently their hands are tied.
A good idea? Who decides?
I don't believe that any qualified school employee should be armed at work. I hope any legislation requires strict control over who is allowed to carry guns in our schools!
nonsence
I watched and listened to the NRAs program for making teachers qualified shooters in a two day program. This is what the NRA has done in several location over the Christmas break. So now in a few hours these individuals are supposedly qualified handgun users. To which I say BS.
I've been a range officer at an NRA approved range. I've participated in programs that are required to qualify for an Alaska Concealed Handgun Permit. And claims that in one day a person becomes qualified with a handgun to never be required ongoing range practice is a total myth. Show me one branch of the military, a police force or any others we expect to be competent with a firearm that relies on a one day hands on course as a measure of proficiency with a firearm.
It also misleading and avoids the issue to focus all the efforts on schools alone. The unfortunate list of mass shooting includes malls, churches, theaters and other locations. Not including these other locations is not a plan to provide public safety but a reaction to the horrors of the school shooting alone.
nuts
This is simply nuts. So we allow teachers to carry concealed weapons, what happens when a high school student decides to over-power one of those teachers and grab their gun? Funny how the NRA says Congress shouldnt act too quickly on making decisions but yet apparently that acting too quickly doesnt apply to NRA who has already submitted their quick solution. Whats even more ironic is the Newtown shooter was unstable and had access to guns, encouraged by his mother who was a staunch gun advocate and probably NRA member. But yet NRA quickly takes focus away from that.
Black Guns
A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.
- Sigmund Freud
Excellent idea
First off, no one seems to have trouble with convenience store clerks, taxi drivers, liquor store clerks, "celebrity" body guards, etc. having weapons, even though there are no training requirements, etc.
Secondly, a common thread in mass violence in recent years is that these killings ONLY have occurred in "gun-free" zones.
As a qualified (military) expert in rifle and pistol, (and retired teacher) I am comfortable with my little Beretta in my pocket, and believe teachers and other staff can be readily qualified in the use of firearm safety and reasonable marksmanship in a short time.
These nut-jobs looking to make a "name" for themselves will look for other venues where they are more sure no one is capable of defense.
Excellent idea
First off, no one seems to have trouble with convenience store clerks, taxi drivers, liquor store clerks, "celebrity" body guards, etc. having weapons, even though there are no training requirements, etc.
Secondly, a common thread in mass violence in recent years is that these killings ONLY have occurred in "gun-free" zones.
As a qualified (military) expert in rifle and pistol, (and retired teacher) I am comfortable with my little Beretta in my pocket, and believe teachers and other staff can be readily qualified in the use of firearm safety and reasonable marksmanship in a short time.
These nut-jobs looking to make a "name" for themselves will look for other venues where they are more sure no one is capable of defense.
Hopefully they will pass
Hopefully they will pass legislation to offset the Obama tax hike I saw in my check on friday
curtis
That is their illegal gun violence tax. That ought to save some lives. Be morally patriotic. Pay the tax!
GJSmith - "A fear of weapons
GJSmith - "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
Freud never said that. Google is your friend. Glad I could clear that up for you.
"This is not a statement that appears in any translation of any of Freud's works. It is a paraphrase of a statement from the essay "Guns, Murders, and the Constitution" by Don B. Kates, Jr."
Lynn will do his job
Lynn will do his job garnering all the hot-button social issues and creating the buzz, while boy Governor and his oil party hacks gather behind closed doors (Debate?? We don`t need no STINKING DEBATE!!") to extort Alaska for two billion a year, to get the oil companies to do what they are going to do, what they are supposed to do under their leases, anyway. Is there even one legislator in this gerrymandered mess, who will call a spade a spade and stand against a giveaway?? One legislator who will stand against lies? Here`s some light reading for Rep. Lynn. (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/how-much-lif...).
Sanity on the Hill
This bill is sanity in an an insane time.
How anyone could in good conscience deny a person the right to protect themselves and their family and friends is insane.
Good for Lynn. I am going to actively write and support his bill. I am going to lobby all members and see that this bill gets to the floor for a vote.
You too can help with this. Write them all and tell them to arm our school staff to protect our children from the nut jobs out there.
@Curtis;
Just curious, since Google is your friend, did you bother with the rest of the information you found?
'Dr. Tanay is perhaps unaware of — in any event, he does not cite — other passages more relevant to his argument. In these other passages Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional development not with gun ownership, but with fear and loathing of weapons. '
Again...
jmac has nailed this one.
A social hotbutton distraction so Parnell can do his dirty work in the shadows. Maybe they can trot an anti-abortion and gay marriage bill out there as well - really flood the news-space with smoke.
Well done, jmac - you are ON today!
This Governor`s Republican
This Governor`s oil industry mantra, "If we stay on the same path of decline (-controlled by them..), opportunities for Alaskans will diminish.” (the sky will fall)- Build the AGIA gasline with those five take-off points you championed so much when you were running for office Governor, and put some Alaskans to work, and this production problem will disappear without a tax giveaway. A tax giveaway of such magnitude would cripple Alaska`s fiscal health. There should be no tax reduction without a commensurate increase in oil production above the "decline line" that Alyeska and this ex Conoco-lobbyist of a Governor keep shoving in our faces, as if secret BP court testimony never happened that "the TAPS line will be VERY profitable for the cartel until at least 2065 with current methods, with just the KNOWN oil they found and have tapped", never happened. If that doesn`t make the oil shills side of the debate in the legislature choke, nothing will. Darn facts, always getting in the way.
(A London/Houston/Juneau
(A London/Houston/Juneau teleconferenced conversation) -"heh heh heh,.. we get em` talking about guns and schools and gay marriage, and we`ll ease that two billion a year tax break right through our stacked and gerrymandered committees to a rousing floor vote...scotch?"
Lynn is a loony, Parnell a ripoff n/t
. nuff said
Not only that curmudgeon,
but he reminds me more of Foster Brooks, than a legislator.
I'm sure he's a nice enough and well intentioned person, but you almost need to be a code-breaker to understand him when he speaks.
As an avid gun user,
As an avid gun user, collector and carrier I know all to well the awsome responsibility that comes with carrying a firearm.Especially in a school or other mass-occupancy building. If we are to allow teachers and or administrators to carry firearms in school then they better damn well be trained to the point where they are competent not only in how to use a firearm but when to use a firearm! They need training in shooting in a crowded environment, target identification, and weapon retention. They need to be taught the capabilities and shortcomings of the particular firearm they choose to carry and they need to qualify at least biannually! I am not against them carrying by any means, I am all for it but it needs to be done right! Shooting on a range with a stangnent target is one thing, shooting in a crowded school hallway with panicked school children, grabbing, pushing and running by you is a whole nother animal. It can be done, but it must be done right!
teachers with
guns? please send in Barney Fife. Just post a national guardsman at each school for effect. Yes, I remember Kent State. I said effect. After Kent most guardsmen only carried 1 live round.
Teachers and Janitors with guns? STUPID STUPID STUPID
I could NEVER send my child to a school where the Teachers are packing heat.
If this bill becomes law I wonder what they will do when parents stop sending their kids to school!
@ Mama
There is always home-school if you don't like the idea of sending your child to school where there are guns. No one would know what teachers or staff would be carrying or they would become a target. I don't like sending my child to school where NO ONE can protect them against idiots who think they are a great unarmed target. Think about the fact that so many mass murderers commit crimes in places that are "gun-free" zones. They pick them on purpose because they know the targets will be unarmed.
How about all you
are so concerned do the home schooling, and do your own protecting. Most of you are armed to the teeth anyway. And to listen to many of you, you're plenty qualified to shoot to kill the first kid that looks suspicious.
Who gets to decide who is qualified and properly trained, and how many children will die in the crossfire, before you realize how foolish it was to have guns in schools? I don't recall one janitor/ custodial type from my school days, that I would want armed.
Who will pay for these armed guards, Parnell is already cuttings services to the bone, so we can "afford" the 2 billion a year he's planning on giving to the oil companies this session. What we'll end up with is people with attitudes like Rough Cut, skirkz, and AKjustice volunteering to troll our schools for something to shoot at.
More guns in more places, is not the answer.
Seriously Tikitime, how long do you think it will be before all the kids know who's carrying in their schools. Don't you think they'll want to know.....for their own safety, and peace of mind. I know I would have, and I was well behaved in school.
My parents made sure of that!
49er
Do you consider police officers as being qualified? Do you know what their training consists of? Personally, I took a gun (20ga pump shotgun) to school many times and either kept it in my locker or in the principal's office. Sorry to dissappoint you, but I never shot anyone either.
Police officers go into schools armed all the time and there don't seem to be bullets flying everywhere. Why are you so untrusting of your fellow community members to do the right thing, but trust w/o question armed govt.?
@Tikitime
You said: "Think about the fact that so many mass murderers commit crimes in places that are "gun-free" zones. They pick them on purpose because they know the targets will be unarmed."
I don't buy that for a moment. What...they look at a map and decide where they will meet the least resistance? I guess you know that because of some twisted statistic from FOX news? I call BS on that.
AND...I can't trust the ALL teachers and janitors are mentally balanced individuals without problems and baggage of their own. Lets see....an X-cop right here in town shot up the neighborhood trying to kill his former associates. I think he had some training didn't he?
Just because someone has a gun doesn't mean he knows how to use it and can do so effectively in emergency situations. I don't want my child in the crossfire or a victim of a Janitor run amok.
It's a ludicrous reaction to the horror of Sandy Hook
@reidk5
I'd like to think police would be qualified, but you know as well as I, that isn't always the case. Being qualified, doesn't always translate to should be allowed to carry.
Your words: "Having worked as a leo I can also tell you there are officers and administrators (my words, much like janitors and teachers).....who definitely should not carry a gun. I had a lieutenant who couldn't qualify so the chief simply told the range officer to give the Lt. a passing score. So much for service and integrity, and that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to LE."
Yeah, I know......and some shouldn't be allowed to be in LE aside from a desk job. I'm guessing I knew that before you were born. I seriously doubt it has improved, more likely it's gotten worse. Who gets to decide?
Honestly, do you know how you would react, and follow through, when live rounds are being fired at you in a closed environment, and there are children, or other innocents in the line of sight?
I stand behind more guns in more places, is not the answer. At least I've yet to hear an argument that has changed my mind.
BTW, where did you get that I trust w/o question armed govt.?
I trust people with guns when they prove themselves worthy, not because of an NRA sticker, or their occupation. I mentioned the attitude of 3 "enthusiasts" that I wouldn't want trolling the halls.....Sorry, are they friends of yours?
Nicest wishes from kasyno!
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