Turning anguish into action after Parkland school shooting

Stoneman Douglas students looking on from the chamber’s gallery still weren’t enough to make the Florida House act.

These brave children, the conscience of our state, watched as House Speaker Richard Corcoran and 70 other Republicans voted against even allowing debate on an assault weapons ban.

This is the deadly status quo in Tallahassee.

Floridians are being hunted and slaughtered — and the continued silence of our so-called leaders in the state Capitol will do nothing to save future victims.

After each shooting, Gov. Rick Scott has gone AWOL. He was too cowardly to even face the student survivors and family members at CNN’s town hall Wednesday night. And he has offered no real solutions to address gun safety in our state.

While the town hall was a step in the right direction and the testimony and questions from survivors and family members were powerful — the time for a conversation about keeping our children safe should have occurred long before this latest tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The time to talk about mental health should have occurred long before a gunman went on a rampage at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport. The time to talk about gun safety should have occurred before the massacre at Pulse.

We’re way past the time for talk — now is the time for action.

As a mother and as governor, I will stand up for our state’s children.

If there are any real leaders in Tallahassee, they should listen to the anger, fear, and determination of the students across our state who marched out of their schools and into the streets to demand safer classrooms.

Instead, the politicians in Tallahassee have pushed to allow open carry and to weaken penalties for those who violate the state’s already weak laws. The NRA sellouts have opposed stricter background checks, lifted restrictions on guns, and even prevented doctors from asking patients if they owned weapons.

Florida’s gun laws are a joke, riddled with loopholes that let dangerous people get guns and inflict serious harm, like the horrific mass shooting at Parkland and on the streets of too many communities every single day.

In fact, it’s easier for a 19 year old in Florida to buy an AR-15 than it is for him to buy a handgun. We have a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases but no waiting period for an AR-15 and ammunition.

This is embarrassing and shameful for our state, and we can change it right now. I have called on Rick Scott to immediately suspend sales of AR-15 and similar assault weapons in the state.

The Legislature must act to strengthen background checks, ban large capacity ammunition magazines, remove guns from domestic abusers, and ban military style assault weapons.

There are so many ways we can tackle this problem, but thoughts, prayers, and silence won’t do it. I won’t stand by and let gun violence continue to terrorize our schools and families. If there’s a chance expanding gun safety could save even one life, we must act.

As a mother, I will not be silent. As governor of Florida, I will turn our anguish into action.

Floridians are being hunted and slaughtered — and the continued silence of our socalled leaders in the state Capitol will do nothing to save future victims.