On a 25-10 vote, the Idaho Senate has endorsed legislation banning local government ordinances regulating the carrying or use of knives, despite an Idaho Attorney General’s opinion that SB 1092 as written conflicts with an existing state law that says schools can regulate knives on campus and at school events. Sen. Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, waved around a folding Buck knife during his debate for the bill, which he’s sponsoring; he said cities have varying local ordinances about knives. “Essentially what it says is that the state has primacy,” he said of the bill. “The state of Idaho has primacy over knives just like we do over guns, just like we do over so many other things.”

He said that should include schools. “Quite frankly, the state should have primacy over schools,” Heider said. “If we don’t want children, whatever age, if we make it junior high, if we make it grade school, whatever, the state should be the one that writes the laws relative to children or young people or adolescents or even adults who carry knives, when they can carry them, where they can carry them.”

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, noted that the bill has no reference to schools; if it did, she could support it, she said. “Passage of this legislation would leave school districts in limbo. … I vote no.” Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, read from the attorney general’s opinion. “This could potentially impact school safety,” he said. “In my estimation, we don’t want to essentially veto with this bill prior public policy pronouncements with respect to the ability of school districts to regulate the carrying and possession of knives by their students.” The bill now moves to the House side.