School staff with guns still part of safety plan
State House also votes down idea to establish Pulse memorial
TALLAHASSEE — Democratic attempts to eliminate arming of public school staff and establish a memorial for Pulse nightclub victims were voted down Tuesday, as the Florida House spent hours in an emotional debate over the $400 million school-safety bill prompted by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
By a 71-42 vote largely along party lines, GOP members rejected an amendment to remove the “guardian” program from the bill to allow some school employees to carry weapons. Rep. Rene Plasencia, R-Orlando, a teacher, was one of two Republicans to vote in favor of the amendment.
Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami, sponsor of the bill, said employees who volunteer to be guardians would only be allowed to use their weapon when confronted with an active shooter.
But black Democrats raised the specter of Florida’s stand your ground law, asserting it would give
guardians the ability to shoot a student who threatened them.
“Florida has a proven record to show certain communities no mercy,” said Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park. “Trayvon Martin wasn’t looking for George Zimmerman to kill him, but he did.”
Martin, 17, who was black, was fatally shot in a confrontation with Zimmerman in 2012 in Sanford. After claiming self-defense, Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges.
Lawmakers have been under pressure to respond to the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland that left 17 students and faculty dead. Classmates and parents of victims traveled to the Capitol in the weeks following the shooting to push for stricter gun control measures.
The House spent all day taking up the measure (SB 7026) approved by the Senate on Monday by a 20-18 vote. A final vote on the bill was expected to occur as soon as today.
The debate touched on several partisan grievances over gun control, school funding and racial politics over the past decade.
And Democrats wondered why GOP leaders didn’t respond to the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.
The final amendment from Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith to put $1 million toward a memorial for victims of the Pulse massacre failed by a 67-49 vote.
“We need to make sure that after the worst act of terror on Florida soil ... that we are going to remember those 49 lives,” said Smith, D-Orlando, in arguing for his proposal. “We have $67 million in this bill to fund arming teachers; surely we can appropriate $1 million to remember those 49 lives.”
Oliva said the timing of the Parkland shooting — during a legislative session when lawmakers can take immediate action — played a part. But he added the bill wasn’t just a response to the latest shooting but to Pulse, the Fort Lauderdale airport attack in 2017 and other mass shootings.
“I don’t want people to go away thinking there’s a greater value placed on certain lives,’’ Oliva said. “It is the accumulation of things that happened in our society that begin to move us. Is it possible was this the last straw? Yes, but it wasn’t the only straw.”
Students from the high school massacre met with several lawmakers, including Gov. Rick Scott and House and Senate GOP leaders, but some Republicans are tiring of Democrats’ arguments that the bill doesn’t include their two main requests: a ban on assaultstyle weapons and removal of the guardian program to arm school staff.
“We’ve been told that we need to listen to the children and do what the children ask,” said Rep. Elizabeth Porter, R-Lake City. “Are there any children on this floor? Are there any children making laws? No. The adults make the laws.’’
The bill advanced by the Legislature includes some historic gun control measures in a state long known for its pro-gun policies.
There is a ban on bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly; an increase in the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21, the same for handguns; and a three-day waiting period for all gun purchases.
Some Republicans have balked at those measures and are under pressure from the National Rifle Association to vote against the bill.
The NRA sent an alert to its members Tuesday, saying House leaders were “bullying” members to vote for the bill. The notice also listed the email addresses of 81 GOP House members, urging members to ask them to vote no.
“YOU and every other lawabiding gun owner are being blamed for an atrocious act of premeditated murder,” the NRA alert stated.
Shortly after the Senate vote on Monday, several Republican members who voted for the bill received small jars of tar and feathers at their offices, according to the Miami Herald. It was unclear who delivered the symbolic gifts.
Under the guardian program in the bill, sheriffs and school districts must opt-in to the program, and employees who volunteer would receive 132 hours of training and undergo psychological, background and drug checks.
Classroom-only teachers would not be allowed to participate unless they have military or law enforcement experience.
The bill also would allow police to confiscate guns of people involuntarily committed under the Baker Act or who pose a violent threat to themselves or others.
It puts nearly $400 million toward hiring more school resource officers, adding metal detectors and bullet-resistant windows in schools, mental health counseling and increasing child welfare investigators.