INDIANAPOLIS— Final negotiations on legislation that would allow licensed gun owners in Indiana to leave their firearms inside locked vehicles in school parking lots were tense Monday as lawmakers heard from the public.
Lawmakers sitting on the conference committee that will ultimately decide the final version of the legislation had, at times, heated exchanges with opponents of the bill.
Opponents characterized allowing guns to remain in school parking lots a major policy shift that would provide access to weapons and restrict local school boards from making policy. Supporters of the bill – namely Republican lawmakers who spoke out on the measure and a representative from the National Rifle Association – said the measure would protect the constitutional rights of a gun owner to keep a firearm locked in a car in the parking lot without running the risk of committing a felony.
As associations representing Indiana superintendents and principals testified against the measure, their representatives were repeatedly asked if they thought a licensed gun owner should face a felony charge if they left a firearm in a locked vehicle in a school parking lot.
In his first time chairing a committee hearing, Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, said he’s had teachers and assistant principals ask him to get the bill passed so they aren’t treated “like a criminal.”
The legislation would allow licensed gun owners to keep their firearms inside a locked vehicle in a school parking lot as long as it’s out of sight.
“I know this is a concern that a lot of people have,” Tomes said. “I don’t think (in) any of these shootings occurred in our schools – as tragic as they are – that it was someone who took a gun out of a car on school property.”
Shannon Watts, a mother of five children from Zionsville and founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said the legislation would allow loaded guns near children in a place where they should feel safe. Watts recalled the Newton, Conn., shooting where 20 children and six staff members were killed in 2012 as an example of why “unregulated access to guns must be limited and not encouraged.”
“Schools do not want firearms on their properties and neither do the mothers of Indiana,” Watts said.
In one of the more tense exchanges, Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, asked Watts if she felt his wife as a mother of three and former school teacher should give up her right to self protection as she goes to and from school.
“Your premise that women are somehow made safer by a gun is factually incorrect,” Watts said.
Eberhart answered Watts by asking why his wife’s rights should be precluded and that his wife, “has the constitutional right for self protection.”
Tomes had initially sought to restrict law enforcement agencies from conducting firearm buyback programs. The portion of the legislation dealing with guns on school property was added by a House committee after Tomes’ measure had passed the Senate. Currently, the bill would allow buyback programs if they are conducted with private funds or grants.
In speaking on the bill in the House, Eberhart said it was important to note that students are not covered under the legislation and the only exception is students who are part of a shooting sports team sanctioned by the school with their principal’s permission.
Tomes recessed the conference committee after taking testimony Monday morning. If the committee can agree on final legislation, the Indiana Senate would take a final vote before any proposal is sent to Gov. Mike Pence.