The Idaho chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today released the following statements after a shooting at Rigby Middle School, in which three people, including two students, were wounded. Details are still developing.
“We are tired of living in a country where students have to fear being shot while in the classroom,” said Lauren Axness, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Idaho. “Our entire generation has grown up feeling unsafe in class, in our homes and in our communities as our lawmakers keep voting for bills to force more guns into schools. These shootings are preventable, we don’t need legislators offering thoughts and prayers while weakening our gun laws – we need action.”
“Our hearts are with the entire Rigby community, no child should have to go through what these middle schoolers went through,” said Theresa Kaufmann, a volunteer with Idaho Moms Demand Action. “The idea that we should be bringing more guns into our schools after what happened today is ridiculous. We need our lawmakers to stop putting children, teachers, and the entire state in danger by weakening our already weak gun laws.”
This year, Idaho lawmakers have been working to advance HB 122 and SB 1135, dangerous legislation that would force K-12 schools to allow employees to carry concealed, loaded handguns in the classroom and on school grounds. Similar legislation was struck down in the past two legislative sessions in 2019 and 2020.
More on the dangers of putting guns in schools is available here. Statistics about gun violence in Idaho are available here, and information on how Idaho gun laws compare to other states overall is available here.