Guns at school? What could go wrong?!

CARSON CITY — Of all the things that people can bring to schools — pencils, books, backpacks, laptops, tablets — guns should probably be last on the list. But the Nevada Legislature spent nearly two hours this morning debating just that issue, as they heard Assembly Bill 2 for the first time.

(For those cynics in the audience who are wondering why a gun bill wasn’t the very first piece of legislation introduced, consider that Assembly Bill 1 pertains to the subject of construction defects. Priorities, you understand.)

AB2 would allow firearms owners to have weapons in their vehicles on K-12 school grounds and on property owned by the Nevada System of Higher Education, locations where possession of firearms is currently prohibited by law. (The weapon would have to be secured in a locked car, or a locked container inside a car, if the car was unoccupied.)

The bill arose after a gun was found in the car of Reed High School employee Dave Sayer, a concealed weapons permit holder who’d left his weapon in his vehicle in the mistaken belief he was in full compliance with the law.

Now, there’s probably a reasonable debate to be had over the issue of what gun owners are supposed to do with their firearms when they have need to go to an area where guns are prohibited, such as a school (say, to pick kids up), a college campus (either as a student or a teacher) or other areas, such as a courthouse, an airport or the like. Of course, that debate wasn’t exactly the one that erupted in the Assembly Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.

On the one side, gun owners and their conservative allies on the committee, who appear to believe there is virtually no space into which a person should not be allowed to carry a firearm. On the other are liberals and people who think creating “gun-free zones” at schools will solve the problem of firearm violence.

Committee member Michele Fiore apologized to one witness, after she was asked to stop talking during testimony by committee Chairman Ira Hansen. But she was fairly short with UNR Police Chief Adam Garcia when asking about automobile burglaries (she erroneously referred to them initially as “robberies”). After Garcia reported 14 auto burglaries on campus in 2013, Fiore made a point to ask the chief about his department’s failure to prevent those crimes.

Garcia had been trying to make the point that guns left in cars could fall into the wrong hands if a car is burglarized.

Former Democratic state Sen. Justin Jones (committee members seemed to go out of their way to omit his former elected title and call him “Mr. Jones” throughout) noted that the bill would allow anyone — concealed weapons permit holder or no — to have a gun at school if AB2 were to become law. Since the initial prohibition was passed on a bipartisan basis and signed by a conservative governor, there’s little reason to change it, Jones said.

(Questioned by the committee, Jones acknowledged he’d prefer that firearms not proliferate on school campuses like the one his daughter attends. Jones lost his state Senate seat in November in part because he championed a vetoed background check bill.)

At the very least, attendees were able to enjoy longtime lobbyist Marlene Lockard, representing the Nevada Women’s Lobby, fearlessly dueling (no pun intended) with conservatives on the committee.

The problems here are obvious: Allowing guns on school campuses has its obvious drawbacks, especially given the spate of school shootings in the last few years. But at the same time, those school shootings are clear evidence that “gun-free zones” are singularly ineffective at stopping violence at schools. And since there are not enough cops to patrol all schools — especially in populous Clark County — finding the right policy that both protects rights and ensures safety is difficult.

But maybe we can start by eliminating some of the fantastical thinking that underlies this debate. The 2nd Amendment is not absolute; gun-free zones have been upheld by courts as consistent with the Constitution, as have rules governing where and how they may be carried concealed. But every law that seeks to restrict or regulate firearms is not an assault on freedom and liberty itself. A bit of calmness on that point might go a long way when these issues come up in the future.

Meanwhile, a reasonable accommodation — perhaps limited to those who have undergone the process to earn a concealed weapons permit — can be made. School employees, for example, with notification to a principal and school police might be allowed to leave their (unloaded) firearm in a locked car, concealed from view on school property. Ditto for employees or visitors to certain government buildings and courthouses.

Why don’t we try that?