Assembly Member Karen Bronga wants to keep guns and weapons out of Anchorage schools. The Anchorage School District has already taken several steps in recent years to catch weapons brought by students before there’s a chance for a violent incident, but a proposed measure would shift the onus onto parents.
“In my mind, we need families to help with the situation,” Bronga said in an interview Tuesday.
At the core of the ordinance is an adjustment to municipal law that allows a parent or guardian to be charged with a misdemeanor if “a minor child takes a deadly weapon to a school, and there is evidence that the parent or guardian of that child either provided them the weapon, or effectively allowed them to access the weapon storing it in a negligent manner,” it says.
According to information cited within Bronga’s ordinance, the Anchorage Police Department confiscated five guns from students during 2024, and the same number the prior year. Far more non-firearm weapons like knives and hatchets are confiscated each year inside Anchorage School District facilities: 56 in the school year ending in 2022, 68 in 2023 and 69 in 2024, according to figures provided by ASD.
It’s already illegal under municipal rules to bring guns or deadly weapons onto school grounds or inside facilities, with very narrow exceptions. The proposed rule change would give prosecutors the ability to charge parents or guardians with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $10,000 fine. As it is currently drafted, the measure has a number of provisions that would allow a parent to avoid prosecution if, for example, they reported the weapon stolen or had stored it “in a manner reasonably expected to prevent unauthorized access.”
A spokesperson for the Anchorage School District declined to comment on the proposal.
ASD joined a campaign in 2022 to inform parents about safe handgun storage, give away trigger locks, and allow students to anonymously report weapon sightings. Bronga wants the penalty adjustment outlined within her ordinance to help cajole parents who own deadly weapons to be more aware and deliberate about securing them, lest they be held criminally liable.
“It’s time we take a really good look at this. We don’t want to take anyone’s guns. We just want them responsibly stored,” Bronga said. “Do what you want with your weapon, but if it goes to school, this is what happens.”
The state of Alaska has authority for rules on guns and other weapons. Local jurisdictions are explicitly prohibited in state law from placing more onerous regulations on firearms that could clash with the state’s strong protections for gun owners. But Bronga said the Assembly’s attorney, who worked on the ordinance, believes there’s insufficient detail on a parent’s potential culpability in firearm offenses within state laws to prevent the municipality from trying to add the code change.
“What we have going forward we believe is legally viable, but we believe there will be people questioning it,” Bronga said.
A former educator, Bronga said she has been in touch with teachers and school board members about the measure, and believes it’s a small way to make students and staff safer.
Bronga is not seeking another term on the Assembly. By the time the proposal is discussed in a work session and open to public testimony in early April, the election to pick her successor representing East Anchorage will already have happened.