Legislature puts safety bills on front burner

TALLAHASSEE — Facing mounting pressure from a student-led movement that seeks increased mental health and background checks for gun buyers and a ban on assault weapons, the Florida Legislature is producing a bill — or possibly multiple ones — that balance student safety with what Republican leaders call “fidelity to the Constitution,” particularly the Second Amendment.

What exactly the House and Senate are going to do — and what the two chambers can agree upon — is still up in the air. State Sen. Bill Galvano, RBradenton, who is helping to craft the legislation, said he hoped to produce a bill today. Senate President Joe Negron, RStuart, said he wanted a bill ready to be debated in its first committee no later than early next week.

The Senate is looking at a variety of ideas under six categories: gun safety; safeguards for people in schools; stronger building security; mental health; public records access and, in conjunction with the Broward County School District, funding to tear down the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed and 16 injured. A memorial would be built on the site.

“They’re all with the goal that a person with a known history of psychiatric and mental health instability, someone with violent

propensities — someone who was acting in such an unsettling, menacing way that someone found out how to call the FBI and called in a specific concern that used the words ‘school shooting’ — that person should be nowhere near a firearm,” Negron said.

Banning assault weapons: Neither House nor Senate leadership are in favor of an assault weapons ban or a ban on high-capacity magazines. Democrats in the House tried to force a vote on such a ban this week and were voted down.

In the Senate, Democrats have vowed to attach such a ban as a floor amendment to some other legislation, thus forcing at least a debate on the idea.

“To ban a particular type of rifle in its entirety and make it illegal, in my judgment, crosses the line to being unconstitutional and that’s why I don’t support it,” Negron said.

Asked whether the federal assault weapons ban, in place between 1994 and 2004, violated the Constitution, Negron replied, “I’m not involved in the federal level; I’m involved in the state level.”

But over in the House, state Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami, who will be Speaker next year, said: “When we pass a law we must take into account what the unintended consequences may be,” he said. “Many would argue that [the federal assault weapons ban] did in fact violate the Second Amendment.”

Raising age limits: A proposal to raise the age limit to buy assault rifles — as well as a cooling off period and a legal definition of assault rifles — are all ideas being considered for the bills.

“I have been very informed by the students, including one of the students that I talked to at the hospital in Broward County,” Negron said. “He thought, you’re 16 years old for driving, then you’re 18 years old, you can serve on a jury, you can vote. You have to be 21 years old to drink alcohol. You have to be 21 years old to obtain some types of weapons. And I thought he made a cogent argument for why we should consider that in this case, and so I’m doing that.”

Arming school workers: Adding more school resource officers is also being considered, as is the possibility of allowing some teachers, or perhaps new positions filled by retired law enforcement or military, to carry firearms on school property.

President Donald Trump, the Florida House and Senate and a task force set up by Gov. Rick Scott seem to support arming teachers. It’s unclear whether current teachers would go through training, whether retired military and law enforcement would be hired, or whether they would be deputized.

-- Checking mental health: The Legislature is also considering a massive cash infusion into schools’ mental health programs. Prior to the shooting, state Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, proposed $40 million for a new mental health program in schools. There could also be expansions of who can have people involuntarily committed under the Baker Act, and plans to remove those people’s firearms until they are given back by a court order.

Leaders in both chambers have said they will not leave the session — scheduled to end March 9 — without passing something that makes serious changes to school safety.