City Government
No Logic When It Comes To Guns
February 8, 2015 
The annual “silly season” is upon us when it comes to gun laws.
A bill currently before the Idaho legislature would make it legal for all citizens to carry concealed guns. Currently only folks with a permit and elected officials can carry concealed without a permit.
When it comes to guns, Idaho laws and public policies make no sense and have little logic or consistency.
After Guv Butch signed the “enhanced carry law” last year, allowing gun toters with a special permit to carry concealed weapons on college campuses, the institutions of higher learning claimed it cost them $3.7 million for additional security. Huh?
At least at BSU they upped their security checks, installing magnetometers at the entrance to whatever they call Bronco Stadium these days. Do they now catch people with enhanced permits? What prompted the security searches at football games, but left the entrances to the basketball arena (currently called Taco Bell) unguarded? We would sure like to know if football fans are more prone to packing heat than basketball fans.
If the legislature rescinded the enhanced carry law and banned ALL concealed weapons on campus, would BSU and the other schools reduce their security staffs and do away with the intrusive searches? We find it absurd to blame the legislature for the $3.7 million “extra security” expense.
The public search process at the Ada Courthouse is just as difficult to understand. Employees use a side entrance and are not subjected to the same personal intrusion as couples seeking marriage licenses or lawyers attending hearings. All those elected judges, commishes, the treasurer, clerk, and assessor can pack heat. They also park in the basement and can bring in their friends and relatives without being searched. “Lock the front door, but leave the back open for the kids.”
Boise City Hall and the Idaho Capitol have no such search requirements for admission.
It isn’t much more logical at the airport where TSA will SELL you some sort of pre-check pass that allows you to keep your belt cinched up and not risk athletes foot padding around shoeless in the footprints of god-only-knows who walked before you. You can also be “randomly selected” for the same TSA courtesy bypass of the body scanner and strip line.
Here is the final irony. If you want a gun for “protection,” think about a bullet proof vest instead. Chances are it will be easier to obtain a gun than a vest.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Feb 8, 2015, 10:31 pm
The sentence “When it comes to guns, Idaho laws and public policies make no sense and have little logic or consistency.” should be changed to read “When it comes to all Idaho laws and public policies…”
It would then be more accurate.
Feb 8, 2015, 10:49 pm
As Noam Chomsky says, if you can’t figure out what is going on, it’s the rich getting richer. They are NOT beefing up security everywhere to stop terrorists or madmen with guns, they are turning America into a police state so that the poor, (read former middle class), won’t rise up and hang the politicians and bankers when they finally understand that they have been fleeced by the psychopaths wielding power. I support the right to bear arms. The founding fathers, however, meant arms that were equal to what the soldiers have, should the government become oppressive, as it is now. Very dangerous times we live in…
Feb 9, 2015, 12:12 am
NO logic to our ‘security measures’ that’s for sure.
Add the federal building to the list too.
It’s all wasteful spending of tax dollars that is not making anyone safer.
Feb 9, 2015, 8:46 am
Let the hand wringing begin.
Feb 9, 2015, 11:18 am
There is all kinds of logic here. One just has to understand it’s a scam to expand budgets while projecting an image that makes people feel safe. Reality is not important.
The goal is bigger budgets, bigger pensions, more perks, more toys… heck if we allow a few gangs to spring up we can use that as a money grab too. Love love love this job… tax payers are SO STUPID!
Feb 9, 2015, 1:43 pm
For years and years you needed no special training to get a conceal carry permit in Canyon County. During that time NOT ONE person with a conceal carry permit was cited for a gun crime. Now comes the trainers who make money on the “training” aspect of conceal carry.
I say do away with the permits, training and anything else that is a roadblock to citizens rights to carry weapons, it may give the bad guys pause before they do something stupid.
TSA is another joke, they find guns but from those with conceal carry permits. They make a lot of noise about guns they kept from getting on airplanes. Much adieu about nothing in my mind.
Feb 9, 2015, 3:41 pm
Kudos to the Boise Guardian for this comment section. I have noticed that most comment sections have either vanished from “news” sites, or have been relegated to a tiny link to get to them. The corporate media are a nothing less than a propaganda mouthpiece for the corrupt politicians these days, and can publish the most insane drivel with no challenge. You get the “Big Brother” view 99% of the time. Most folks are now so divorced from reality as to be thoroughly confused on most every subject except professional sports and celebrity whorship. The current six corporations that provide most of our infotainment known as news will probably eventually be whittled down to one the way things are going. They will probably call it something like the Christian Patriot News Network.
Feb 10, 2015, 7:22 pm
When laws become so burdensome, onerous, and ridiculous- people will simply quit obeying them. We are there now.
J+Smith is right.
Think about this. We are supposed to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. That is written in the Bill of Rights yet I have to submit to a search as a paying customer or submit to a search to obey a summons? They tried to search me as a paying customer at Hoover Dam.
Screw em. I am done submitting to this BS.
Feb 11, 2015, 7:43 am
The court house is especially galling. I had to go through security once to drop of a report at the front desk! If they can’t limit screening to the court area (preferred alternative), They could at least turn the front desk around so that the first person you deal with isn’t a security guard. (as an aside, the old guy in the baseball cap and the food-stained shirt who was behind the counter when I turned in the report, tried to look up the recipient in the alphabetical list by the first name–really inspired confidence)
Feb 11, 2015, 1:40 pm
Guardian,
I love your insight to the many issues affecting us in Boise and Idaho.
Arizona has had an open carry law since 2010, I have not heard of rampant problems in that state since enacted. At least, our legislatures are permitting the open discussion the possibility of a law change.
Arizona also permits the sale of beer in college football stadiums. Idahos were able to consume adult beverages during the recent Fiesta Bowl. Not possible at the playoff game at Taco/Albertson/Bronco Stadium.
My question. Why does Idaho deny the average citizen buying an overpriced football ticket from the opportunity to enjoy an alcoholic beverage when it is possible to buy and consume mixed drinks in the elites-only Stueckle Sky Center? It would seem that ever dollar-chasing universities would see a profit opportunity instead of whining continuously about money issues.
Just a thought on the class and underclass in Idaho.
EDITOR NOTE–Brad, you answered your own question. If we were all allowed to down a brew or two there would be nothing “elite” about the Stueckle Center other than being farther from the gridiron.
Feb 13, 2015, 3:15 am
It’s part of the scam:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-top-10-dangerous-jobs-country-tanks/