Washington state will spend $10 million over the next two years in an effort protect schools.

With references to the Dec. 14 massacre at the school in Newtown, Conn., the state Senate unanimously approved spending $475 million on school construction over the next two years, with $10 million of it going to make schools safer, says The Spokesman-Review.

The bill calls for safe storage of firearms in homes with children, and calls for background checks for private gun sales as well as those by licensed dealers. Other proposals in the bill would allow a person with mental health problems to voluntarily surrender a firearm to police, and expand the reasons a judge could deny gun possession to a person found not guilty by reason of insanity.