Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Florida students push for gun-law changes
Confronting legislators, they urge ‘action’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Filled with fury and impatient for change, thousands of Florida high school stu- dents and protesters rallied Wednesday at the state Capitol to demand that lawmakers take action in the final weeks of the legislative session to curb the sale of assault-style rifles.
“Thoughts and prayers won’t stop my brothers and my sisters from dying — action will,” said Sheryl Acquaroli, 16, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty members were killed Feb. 14 in a mass shooting. “They are our students, our teachers and our coaches. And they died because you failed.”
The voices of survivors of school shootings also filled the White House on Wednesday as President Donald Trump held a listening session and heard pleas from
parents and students for government action to keep children safe.
As lawmakers were condemned on the steps of Florida’s Capitol, a bipartisan group in the state House and Senate continued working to hash out a set of bipartisan proposals that could be voted on as early as next week.
The proposals under consideration stop short of student demands for a ban on the sale of semi-automatic assault-style weapons like the AR-15 style gun that was used in the most recent shooting. Instead, lawmakers have focused on new waiting period and age restrictions on buyers of semi-automatic rifles, new powers for police to confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous by the courts and new measures to protect schools from mass shooters.
At a news conference Wednesday, Broward County, Fla., Sheriff Scott Israel ordered all deputies who qualify to begin carrying rifles on school grounds. The rifles will be secured in patrol cars when not in use until the agency obtains gun lockers, he said.
The sheriff said the school superintendent fully supports his decision.
Marjory Stoneman’s school resource officer was carrying a weapon when the shooting happened last week but did not discharge his firearm.
Also Wednesday, teens in at least a dozen south Florida schools walked out of class to protest gun violence and commemorate the shooting victims. About 2,000 students, parents, teachers and supporters held hands and chanted outside the Parkland campus.
The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been jailed on 17 counts of murder. Defense attorneys, state records and people who knew him indicate that he displayed behavioral troubles for years, including getting kicked out of the Parkland school. He owned a collection of weapons.
“How is it possible that this boy that we all knew was clearly disturbed was able to get an assault rifle, military grade, and come to our school and try to kill us?” one 16-year-old student asked the president of the state Senate, Joe Negron.
Negron, who has received a perfect score from the powerful National Rifle Association for his gun votes, said, “That’s an issue that we’re reviewing.”
When another lawmaker said he supported raising the age to buy assault-style weapons to 21 from 18, the students broke into applause.
Thus far, the lawmakers’ proposals that feature the waiting period and age restrictions
represent a sharp break from the state’s traditional response to mass-casualty gun violence. Though a contested state in presidential elections, Florida has a long history as a laboratory of gun-rights legislation pushed by the NRA.
The state spearheaded efforts to establish concealed-carry permits and a “stand-your-ground” law, which protects people who use deadly force if they believe they are in imminent danger. Many state leaders boast high NRA approval ratings.
National gun-control groups helped organize the rally in Tallahassee, and then led hundreds of students to clog the hallways of the Capitol building in protest afterward.
Before the rally, where a procession of students spoke, Florida Senate Republican leaders met with a group of about 50 surviving students of the Parkland shooting who had traveled to the state Capitol. One student denounced the NRA as “murderers,” several said they had come to “beg” for changes to gun laws, and many broke into tears as they described how their friends were shot.
“He was a boy who got shot in the head because of your laws, saying an 18-year-old boy can carry a military-grade weapon to kill,” said Tyra Hemans, 19, a senior who held a photo of her friend, Joaquin Oliver, which she kept in her cellphone case.
Many protesters complained that lawmakers were not serious about changes, and they said they would oppose in future elections any legislator who accepts campaign contributions from the NRA.
“We’ve spoke to only a few legislators and … the most we’ve gotten out of them is, ‘We’ll keep you in our thoughts. You are so strong. You are so powerful,’” said Delaney Tarr, a senior at the high school.
Florida took no legislative action on guns after an attack on a Orlando nightclub killed 49 people in 2016 or after another rampage in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that killed five in 2017. In the current legislative session, there have been Republican proposals to allow guns in courthouses and airports, as well as proposals to allow the carrying of handguns without a permit.
The outlines of a possible new agreement emerged last week, in the days immediately after the Parkland shooting, during bipartisan tours of the crime scene at the school.
For some involved in the process, the fact that Democrats now have a seat at the table to discuss gun violence is itself a breakthrough that could have implications outside the state, as the rest of the country grapples with growing concern over gun violence. Trump, a staunch NRA ally, has also begun talking about potential gun-control measures.
“The change that we are on the cusp of making in the state of Florida has implications for the rest of the country,” said Rep. Kristin Jacobs, a Broward County Democrat who represents the families of the fallen in Parkland.
Trump listened intently and pledged action Wednesday as students and parents appealed to him to set politics aside and protect America’s schoolchildren from gun violence.
“I turned 18 the day after” the shooting, said a tearful Samuel Zeif, a student at the high school. “Woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. And I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war. An AR. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon?”
Trump promised to be “very strong on background checks.” He suggested he supported allowing some teachers and other school employees to carry concealed weapons to be ready for intruders.
The president had welcomed the teen survivors of school violence and parents of slain children to the White House, encouraging his guests to offer solutions. Trump did not fully endorse any specific policy solution but pledged to take action.
Besides considering concealed carrying of weapons by trained school employees, a concept he has endorsed in the past, he said he planned to go “very strongly into age, age of purchase.” And he said he was committed to improving background checks and working on mental health.
In the U.S. Congress, some lawmakers were busy discussing ways to curb gun violence.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Wednesday that they would introduce a bill to raise the minimum age required to purchase rifles from gun dealers, including assault-style weapons such as the AR-15.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Wednesday that he’ll probably reintroduce bipartisan legislation that would require background checks for all gun purchases online and at gun shows. He said he planned to discuss the idea with Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump directed the Justice Department to move to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre..
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Scherer of The Washington Post and by Catherine Lucey, Matthew Daly, Jill Colvin, Sadie Gurman, Marc Levy, Brendan Farrington, Gary Fineout, Tamara Lush, Joe Reedy, Terry Spence, Kelli Kennedy, Freida Frisaro and Alina Hartounian of The Associated Press.