Two shootings, two different responses — Maine restricts guns while Iowa arms teachers

Six months after a deadly mass shooting by an Army reservist, Maine lawmakers this week passed a wide-ranging package of new gun restrictions. Three months after a fatal school shooting, Iowa lawmakers this week passed legislation allowing trained teachers and staff to carry guns on school property. Two states. Two tragedies. Two different approaches to improving public safety.

Maine has a tradition of hunting and gun ownership. But after an Army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills called for a variety of new laws aimed at preventing dangerous people from possessing guns and strengthening mental health services.

In Perry, Iowa, a school principal and sixth-grade student died and several others were wounded when a 17-year-old student opened fire in January. A 2021 state law already allowed schools to authorize individuals to carry firearms, though some districts have not done so because of concerns about insurance coverage.

Republican-led legislatures in Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah also passed measures this year that would expand the ability of some people to bring guns into schools. A bill passed in Wyoming allots $480,000 to reimburse schools for the cost of training employees to carry guns on school property. Louisiana and South Carolina, led by Republican lawmakers and governors, each enacted laws allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit.

Not all new gun policies diverge along partisan lines. Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this year vetoed 30 gun-related bills passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly that he said would have trampled on constitutional rights. Yet Youngkin also signed some gun restrictions: One bans devices that convert semi-automatic handguns into automatic weapons.

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