Florida legislators propose new gun laws
Nine TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — days after the Florida school shooting, Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislators announced school safety and gun restriction proposals that would ban the sale of firearms to anyone under 21, but they differed on whether some teachers should carry guns.
The action came Friday as teachers returned for the first time to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School since the Valentine’s Day shooting that killed 17 people. The Broward County school superintendent said he is adamantly opposed to teachers having guns. But President Donald Trump repeated in several appearances Friday that he favors the idea.
Scott, a Republican widely expected to run for the Senate, outlined his plan at a Tallahassee news conference. In addition to banning firearm sales to anyone under 21, the governor called for a trained law enforcement officer for every school — and one for every 1,000 students at larger schools — by the time the fall 2018 school year begins.
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which has more than 3,000 students, had one armed resource officer, who never entered the building under attack while a gunman was shooting people inside, officials said.
That failure, plus reports of a delay in security camera footage scanned by responding police and several records about the troubled background of 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz, added to what the Florida House speaker called an “abject breakdown at all levels.” Cruz is jailed on 17 counts of murder and has confessed to the shootings, investigators say.
Among other things, the governor’s $500 million plan would create a “violent threat restraining order” that would let a court prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon under certain circumstances.
The proposal would also strengthen gun purchase and possession restrictions for mentally ill people under the state’s Baker Act, which allows someone to be involuntarily hospitalized for up to 72 hours. Scott is seeking $50 million for mental health initiatives that include expanding mental health services by providing counseling, crisis management and other mental health services for youth and young adults.
“No one with mental issues should have access to a gun. It is common sense. It for their own best interest, much less the best interest of our communities,” Scott said.
The governor’s plan made no mention of arming teachers on school grounds
However, the Legislature’s Republican leadership proposed letting teachers carry a gun if they have had law enforcement training — a provision that House Speaker Richard Corcoran called a “game changer.” The legislators’ plan also calls for a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, with exceptions.
Democrats said neither plan goes far enough.
“Unfortunately, both plans omit a third, critically important piece of legislation Democrats have been and continue to push for: a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” said state Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon. He added that recent mass shootings show that “so long as these high powered weapons of war remain available for purchase these killings will continue.”