Florida to arm teachers, curb gun purchase

Minimum age to buy firearms raised from 18 to 21

Miami, March 8: The Florida House on Wednesday passed legislation that raises the minimum age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, imposes mandatory background checks and allows some teachers and staff to carry guns in school.

For some shooting survivors who wanted an assault weapons ban, the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act,” passed in defiance of the National Rifle Association ( NRA), didn’t go far enough; for some Republican legislators who opposed stricter measures on gun ownership, it went too far. Spurred by the February 14 school shooting in Parkland, in which 17 people including 14 students were killed, the legislature’s Lower House passed the legislation with a 67- to- 50 vote a day after the Senate cleared it with a narrow 20- to- 18 vote.

The bill evolved over 10 days of impassioned, often contentious debate in Florida’s majority Republican House and Senate. It now goes to Republican Governor Rick Scott, who has 15 days to sign it. Gov. Scott has previously expressed opposition to US President Donald Trump’s call to arm teachers.

Apart from raising the minimum age to purchase all firearms from 18 to 21 — a provision that would have prohibited the Parkland gunman, Nikolas Cruz, 19, from legally buying the rifle he used in his massacre — the bill bans modification devices that make a

semi- automatic weapon fully automatic, and increases mental health funding. It also creates a waiting period for prospective gun buyers. They will have to wait three days, or until a background check is completed, whichever is longer.

But the most controversial provision of the bill is one that will allow superintendents and sheriffs to arm school personnel. The bill would create a $ 67 million “marshal” program under which certain employees — including counselors, coaches and librarians, but not full- time classroom teachers — could be trained and armed. The bill also allocates millions of dollars to make buildings more secure and to hire more schoolbased police officers.

America’s long moribund gun control debate was revived by survivors of the Parkland shooting, who a day after their school was attacked launched the “Never Again” movement demanding legislative action. — Agencies