Senate committee advances bill moving foster-home licensing rules into statute, removes requirement to lock firearms and ammunition in separate locations

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1034 to the Senate floor with a due pass recommendation after a debate over safe-storage requirements for firearms in foster homes.

Sponsor Sen. Brandon Shippey (R-District 9) told the committee the bill moves existing administrative rules (identified in the hearing as sections 230, 232 and 233 of the Idaho administrative rules relating to foster care licensing) into statute and removes a provision that had required weapons and ammunition be locked in two separate locations. "We really feel like it's probably a better approach anyway because previously, there was no gun safety education," Shippey said, adding that the Department of Health and Welfare plans to create an educational video that would be part of orientation for foster licensure.

Shippey said the remaining foster-home requirements are the same as providers have followed for years — basic housing, sanitary and safety items such as functioning sinks and toilets — and that removing the two-location lock requirement responds to concerns the rule effectively disarmed some households and posed a barrier to recruitment. "You don't really have any access to your weapons if you felt like you needed them in a moment's notice," Shippey said, arguing education and trust between providers and the department is a better tool.

Sen. Wintrow raised research-based safety concerns and said safe storage prevents unintentional firearm injury and death among children. Citing the National Violent Death Reporting System, Wintrow said unintentional firearm deaths among children were recorded and that the majority of those incidents occurred at a house or apartment. "The best way to prevent an unintentional firearm injury with a child is to lock it up," she said, and announced she would vote "no" on the committee motion.

Other senators said they believed the bill does not prohibit safe storage and pointed to existing language that requires hazardous materials be inaccessible to children; one senator said firearms would fit that category. Sen. Harris moved to send SB 1034 to the floor with a due pass recommendation; Sen. Blaylock seconded. A substitute motion to send the bill to the fourteenth order for possible amendments failed for lack of a second. The committee proceeded to a voice vote and the motion to send the bill to the floor passed. The committee chair did not record a roll-call tally during the voice vote. The transcript records at least one recorded committee "no" vote (Sen. Wintrow).

No members of the public signed up to testify on the bill at the committee hearing. The Department of Health and Welfare, according to the sponsor, will produce or oversee a safety education video for foster-home orientation and training; Shippey said he expects the department to include firearm safety education in that material. The bill as presented removes only the requirement to lock firearms and ammunition in separate locations; other licensing requirements remain unchanged.