The Arizona Safer Schools, Safer Communities Plan

Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix (District 24) Minority Leader Arizona House of Representatives Too often, we hear terrible news reports of shootings in our countrys schools and public places. Some of these tragic events have even happened in our own state, most notably the shooting of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that killed 6 people in Tucson in January 2011. The numerous school shootings and recent murders of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut have again demonstrated how vulnerable our children can be in a setting where they should always be safe and secure. The story is almost always the same when one of these horrific events unfolds: a person suffering from mental illness takes deadly, high-powered weapons into a setting that lacks the security to detect or stop the armed gunman before he can carry-out his murderous intentions. It is past time that Arizona provides help to those whose mental illness makes them a threat to themselves or others. We must work to prevent these types of tragedies while aggressively protecting our children and community from the potential deadly consequences. The Arizona Safer Schools, Safer Communities Plan will: Make school sites safer ($100 million total cost): 1) Triple the funding for the existing School Safety Program that funds on-campus School Resource Officers (SROs). Currently, this program receives about $8 million in funding. Under my proposal, it would receive $25 million annually (a $17 million increase), to allow more SROs to be placed on school sites. 2) Create infrastructure within the Arizona Department of Educations School Safety and Prevention Unit to coordinate statewide trainings and provide technical assistance to district, charter and private schools for emergency response planning and threat assessment. My plan would allocate $1 million annually for this work. 3) Require each school district and all charter schools to conduct and update regularly a regular comprehensive threat assessment (if they havent already done so) and identify what is needed to provide adequate security at each of their school sites. 4) Establish a school safety fund of $20 million that will provide competitive grant money to enhance school security measures and equipment based on the needs identified in the school site threat assessment and emergency response plan and training. 5) Double the number of school counselors to help ensure there are more mental health professionals in the school setting to help identify children who may need services and intervention. The total approximate cost of my proposal is $62 million and this amount will be phased in over 3 years to allow adequate implementation time.

Address the needs of the mentally ill ($161 million total cost): 1) Fully fund Non-Title XIX services for the Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI) at the 2009 levels at a cost of $23 million. This will ensure all services previously provided under the Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit settlement will again be made available to all who are eligible. In addition to restoring funding to the SMI population, my proposal will also reform the system to incorporate incentives for providers to produce positive outcomes - such as stability in housing, employment/education, and lower involvement in crime and the criminal justice system - for the clients they serve. 2) Fully expand Medicaid coverage to individuals with an income up to 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL). This will ensure access to mental health services for all individuals in this population through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). The estimated cost for the first year of this coverage is $138 million. Ensure gun ownership is safe ($0 total cost): 1) Close the gun show loophole by requiring sales and transfers to take place through a federally licensed firearms dealer to ensure all background checks and other requirements are met. Failure to comply with the requirement to use a licensed firearm dealer for the transaction would be a criminal offense. 2) Require that person-to-person sales, loans and transfers of any firearms defined as "assault weapons" be processed by a licensed dealer to ensure a background check and other requirements that would be imposed if the purchase were made from a dealer are met. Failure to comply with the requirement to use a licensed firearm dealer for the transaction would be a criminal offense. For providing this service to private parties, licensed dealers will be permitted to charge no more than $50 (in addition to any government-imposed background check or other required fees). Weapons passed down to family members as family heirlooms and keepsakes would be exempt from this requirement. 3) Reinstate the training and other requirements that were in place previous to 2010 related to receiving a permit to carry a concealed firearm (CCW permit). Failure to comply with these requirements would be a criminal offense. 4) Limit access to firearms for those individuals who are a risk to themselves or others. Arizona law currently prohibits possession of a firearm by any person who has been found to constitute a danger to him/herself or others pursuant to court order, but the definition of prohibited possessor must be extended to include those who have been voluntarily committed and/or assessed as a threat to themselves or others by law enforcement. In addition, persons who have an order of protection issued against them, which has been issued after a full judicial proceeding where both parties were present, would be prohibited possessors under my proposal. 5) Ensure that local governments can adopt ordinances to allow for the disposal of guns they obtain through seizure, forfeiture or abandonment, including through firearm buy back programs.