NIC spokesman takes issue with proposed campus gun bill

BOISE — A North Idaho College spokesman on Monday took issue with state legislation that would create new exemptions for carrying firearms on Idaho’s college campuses.

NIC’s Mark Browning noted that the Lake City community college already has its own “no carry” policy banning firearms — concealed or open carry — on the NIC campus.

If the bill introduced at the Idaho Legislature on Monday becomes law, it would infringe upon NIC’s gun policy by weakening local control for the school’s trustees, Browning said.

“By carving out those exemptions, what it does is erodes our local board’s authority to make decisions that impact its own campus,” Browning said in an interview.

NIC’s five-member board of trustees will meet later today in Coeur d’Alene to formalize their official position on the issue. The trustees will hold a special meeting at 5:45 p.m. in the Edminster Student Union Building Driftway Bay Room on the NIC campus.

The proposed legislation, according to its terms, would allow certain licensed persons to carry firearms on college campuses.

“We feel that that takes away the local control issue,” Browning said.  “And that’s our (NIC’s) contention, is that trustees in Coeur d’Alene, Twin Falls, and Nampa have a much better relationship with their own community, have a much better feel for what’s appropriate on their campus. And, if you take that authority away and move it to Boise, it’s just another example of local control eroded. That’s where our issue’s at.”

Browning said the NIC board of trustees is best suited to collaborate with entities such as the Kootenai County Sheriff and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department “to make the decision that’s best for our campus, because we know our campus.”

After some questions Monday from the Senate State Affairs Committee, the legislation sponsored by Sen. Curt McKenzie, a Republican representing Canyon County’s District 13, was sent to print to become an official bill.

Browning said that NIC intends to testify on the legislation when it comes up for a full hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee.