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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) Freshman District 24 state representative Dwight Kiefert of Valley City made this statement concerning the nationwide reaction to finding a better way protecting children in school following the shooting last month in Connecticut.

Here’s representative Dwight Kieferts response centers on the proposed cost of protecting children in North Dakota school. “I do not want guns in schools, but the question I ask our opponents is “Whats their Answer”? As tax payers, do we want to spend $75,000,000 per year to put a law officer in every North Dakota school?

The real problem is mental illness, how much money do the taxpayers want to spend to deal with this problem? The occurrence of mental illness seems to be skyrocketing, are we going to try and identify the violently mentally ill and incarceration them or put them in an institution? We are open to direction for the public’s solution.

My bill HB 1215 simply gives the school the right to develop their own plan of defense that would include hiring, a retired police officer, retired military, or whomever they wish. They have the right to train their staff, including teachers to defend their schools and allow whomever to take the conceal and carry class and practice this on the school grounds. They can develop a plan with their local authorities so everyone at the school and enforcement would be able to react collectively to a situation.

My bill also gives them the right to have a closed meeting concerning their defense plans, they can allow whomever they wish, but I felt that keeping the final plans from the general public would be in the best interests of the school. Especially if they decided not to defend their school. Why tell a perpetrator that the school is defenseless or whom in fact will be armed.

HB 1215 also leaves the Gun Free Zone intact for the schools, this would prevent parents from conceal and Carry onto the school grounds where they might be perceived as a perpetrator.

I am quite sure that there will be changes to our gun laws, the best way to approach the decision makers is to directly email North Dakota Judicial committee members directly, I will attach their names, you can get their email address at the ND.GOV webpage. They have the hearings, amendments, and try to come up with the best plan and then present it to the Legislature for a vote.

Chairman Representative Kim Koppelman (R) Vice Chairman Representative Lawrence R. Klemin (R) Legislative Members; Representative Randy Boehning (R) Representative Roger Brabandt (R) Representative Lois Delmore (D) Representative Ben W. Hanson (D)Representative Kathy Hogan (D) Representative Karen Karls (R) Representative William E. Kretschmar (R) Representative Diane Larson (R) Representative Andrew G. Maragos (R) Representative Gary Paur (R) Representative Vicky Steiner(R) Representative Nathan Toman (R)