The Iowa House of Representatives recently passed a bill that many may have misunderstood.

Representative for District 23 Ray Sorensen says that many have believed the bill authorizes teachers and school staff to carry firearms on school property. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that this isn’t the case.

“That happened before I was in the legislature. In Iowa Code 724.4B, it allows schools to authorize their employees to carry on school property, so that was already done. What the bill is that we passed, that just put standards around it. So essentially it created like, a better permit around that, which would require a lot more training, a lot more professional qualifying.”

Sorensen mentions that it also adds legal, emergency medical, communication training and quarterly live fire training, among others. He adds that these standards weren’t included in code before, but after so many tragedies, and with school boards looking to implement ways to keep their students safe, the House came up with this bill to give another tool to schools to protect those they serve. Sorensen explains that obviously, this is not the end all be all for school safety, and that no schools or teachers will be required to carry firearms, but that they can, should they choose to do so.