DENVER — The Colorado House Education Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would require school districts to provide parents with information about safe gun storage.
Students who are pushing for passage of House Bill 25-1250 say it will go a long way in making schools and communities safer.
Like many students these days, Carter Ferris worries about gun violence.
“It's hard to be educated when there's the constant thought of a school shooter,” said Ferris, who leads the Regis Jesuit High School chapter of Students Demand Action. “There are school shootings all the time, and it's scary. It's hard to go to school when those kind of things are happening.”
Ferris testified in support of the bill Thursday night.
“This bill is so common sense, and this kind of common sense can save so many lives,” he said.
Most school shooters get their guns from the home of a parent or relative. The bill would require Colorado school districts to provide information to parents about safe gun storage at the beginning of every school year.
“When families register their students for the school every year, they usually have a big packet to fill out,” said State Rep. Eliza Hamrick, D-Centennial. “This would be included in that.”
Schools would also be required to post the information on their websites.
Hamrick, the bill sponsor in the House, said the legislation was brought to her by the Colorado Youth Advisory Council.
“It's a bill that students feel very strongly about,” she said.
The information parents would receive would be provided to school districts through the Colorado Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
State Rep. Jarvis Caldwell was among five members of the House education committee who voted against the bill. He said he was concerned about some of the information that would be given to parents, like a section outlining why they may want to consider temporarily storing guns away from their homes, such as when someone is having a mental health crisis, you have visitors, you're renting out your home or you're going to be away from the home for an extended period.
“We're telling them there's benefits of not having firearms in their home,” said Caldwell. "I think it does serve as just further stigmatization of gun ownership when these things are being passed out."
Ferris said he couldn’t understand why anyone would be against the legislation.
“All it does is help educate parents,” said Ferris. “It helps keep people safe.”
The bill passed out of the House Education Committee on Thursday night by a vote of seven to five. It now heads to the full Colorado House of Representatives.
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