On March 28, Gov. Mike Pence signed a law allowing adults to keep guns locked in their vehicles in school parking lots. However, guns are still not permitted in school buildings or on school buses. This new law will take effect on July 1.

Police officer Phil Hobson said the new law will make it more convenient for people who legally carry firearms to protect their Second Amendment rights to bear arms.

Hobson said, “The basis of the argument is that I am constitutionally allowed to bear arms, and what’s going on now is if I need to go to a school or if I’m a parent dropping off my daughter’s lunch off to school and if I’m a legal gun owner, I currently am not allowed to even bring my gun with me, which is an inconvenience to someone who was maybe going to work or feel they need to have their right to carry their gun. They would have to leave it at home before coming onto school grounds.”

Although this new law could pose some concerns about students’ safety at schools, junior Celina Tragesser said she is perfectly comfortable with the new law.

Tragesser said, “I think (the new law) is nothing new, because we already have the right to bear arms as American citizens. I’m not against it in any way because it is our constitutional right to be able to bear arms. As long as the guns are locked in the cars, it doesn’t pose a threat to anyone at the school or the children at all.”

However, there inevitably is debate between the two political sides of the spectrum, and not everyone believes the new bill is the safest choice for students, including junior Blake Richardson.

Richardson said, “My opinion would be that this makes schools more unsafe, and it may actually lead to further problems. For example, with guns allowed on school property, if a potential gunman knows this fact, they could break into a car, and it would just bring unnecessary violence onto school grounds. As a whole, more students would probably feel more unsafe at school.”

Despite contrary perceptions of what the law means in terms of students’ safety in school, Hobson said he doesn’t think the new law will impact or change students’ safety.

“I think that people that legally own firearms generally are not the threats that we are concerned about. I think that people who would bring firearms to a school to do harm probably don’t follow the other laws as well,” Hobson said. “But someone who is a law-biding citizen who has a weapon, I don’t think that makes the safety issue any more concerning to me, because if someone were coming to the school to hurt someone, they’re not going to worry about the laws that were here before or now.”

Tragesser said she also doesn’t think the new law changed students’ safety at CHS.

“For me, personally, I believe that if an intruder really wanted to come and injure students, they could do so with or without this being legal, because they’re going to do it anyways whether or not it’s legal or not, and this law wouldn’t allow it to be easier or harder for them to come. So I don’t feel any more or less safe with this new law,” Tragesser said.

Hobson said the intent of the law and the perception of its impact on students’ safety can be completely different.

“I hope we don’t have people perceiving that there’s an increase in danger, because I think that in our community, 99.9 percent of our citizens are doing the right thing and that there is not an increase threat to us because of this law,” Hobson said. “We’re still working every day to make sure that we’re safe before this law, and we will continue to do so after this law.”