Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes gun-related school bills

PHOENIX — Parents won’t be able to bring their loaded weapons onto school campuses, at least not while Katie Hobbs is Arizona’s governor.

Nor will students get training on gun safety.

In a single veto letter Monday, the governor vetoed both measures saying they do nothing to prevent gun violence. And she said if the safety of school children is really a concern of lawmakers there are better ways to do that — ways the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused to consider.

Hobbs also vetoed two other measures.

One would have directed judges, when confronted with two conflicting interpretations of a state election law, to err on the side of which promotes more transparency.

“This bill adds unnecessary language into statute and does not solve any of the real challenges facing election administration,” the governor wrote of HB 2319. “I look forward to working with the Legislature on bills to do that.”

And even Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, who crafted the bill, acknowledged much of this wouldn’t be necessary if lawmakers crafted clearer statutes.

Hobbs also rejected HB 2297 which would have said that prosecutors pursing cases of fraudulent schemes and artifices are not required to establish that all of the unlawful acts occurred within the state.

“This bill will lead to confusion where none currently exits,” Hobbs said in her veto message. “Existing state law adequately outlines the jurisdictional issues addressed in this bill.”

But the governor saved most of her comments for the two gun-related measures.

SB 1131, proposed by Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, sought to create an exception to existing laws that preclude loaded guns on school property. It would have allowed parents who have a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon to keep it with them if they also have a child at that school.

Shamp said that, if nothing else, it would keep parents rushing to the school from being charged with a felony simply because they forgot to first unload the weapon.

Anyway, she told colleagues, it is far safer to keep the gun loaded than risk accidents when unloading and reloading it.

HB 2332 was pushed by Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Scottsdale. It would have required public and charter schools to provide “age-appropriate” training in firearms safety for students in grades sixth through 12.

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None of that would involve the actual instruction on how to operate weapons. Instead, it was promoted as teaching “simple, easy-to-remember steps so individuals who receive the training know what to do if they ever come across a firearm.”

Hobbs found neither plan acceptable.

“Mandatory firearm safety training in schools is not the solution to gun violence prevention,” the governor wrote. She said the requirement could have “immediate and long-term impacts” on the health and well-being of students, teachers and parents, though Hobbs did not spell out what those were.

Nor did she like Shamp’s proposal.

“Allowing more guns on campus will not make a campus safer,” she said. Then there’s the fact that police officers, arriving at a school with an active-shooter situation, won’t necessarily know who are the criminals who are armed and who are the parents.

“I’m focused on finding concrete solutions to gun violence prevention that protect Arizona families, including but not limited to, policy focused on trauma-informed emergency planning and safe, secure gun storage,” the governor wrote.

And Hobbs said lawmakers did have a chance to consider such a measure.

She pointed to HB 2192 which would have made it illegal to keep a firearm or ammunition in any home unless they were in a “securely locked box” or the gun was equipped with a device device that makes it inoperable without a key or combination. The only exception would be if the owner was carrying the gun or it was within “close proximity.”

It is dubbed “Christian’s Law,” named after Christian Petillo who, while at a friend’s house in Queen Creek for a sleepover, was fatally shot. The death was ruled accidental.

House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Peoria, never even assigned the measure by Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, for a committee for a hearing.

In fact, GOP leadership used a procedural motion to block a bid by Longdon, who is paralyzed from the waist down since a random drive-by shooting in 2004, to bring what is known as “Christian’s Law” to the full House and put all lawmakers on record. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, defended the maneuver.

“At the end of the day, it’s the person behind the gun,” he said in engineering the move to block a vote. “And we should never forget that it (the Second Amendment) says ‘shall not be infringed.’”

Monday’s actions bring Hobbs’ total vetoes this session to 52. The record of 58 was set by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2005.