Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa House has approved a bill that sets up a state school safety grant program and, if a companion bill becomes law, it could provide extra pay to school staff who get a professional permit to carry a gun on school grounds.
Representative Carter Nordman of Adel says it’s part of House Republicans’ response to the fatal shooting at Perry High School in January.
That’s a list of shootings in school facilities in Iowa. Democrats say the grants in this bill could be used to buy guns if school boards get the authority to let employees be armed at school. Representative Ross Wilburn, a Democrat from Ames, says the bill’s a disappointment.
Another Democrat said the legislature should be making it harder for a would-be school shooter to get a gun rather than making it easier to have more guns in schools.
