Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
One year after Parkland shooting, Dems seek red flag law expansion
TALLAHASSEE – Nearly a year after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Democrats in the Legislature are ramping up their push for greater gun control measures they say are needed to prevent mass shootings and other violence.
Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, filed SB 764 on Thursday, which would allow family members to petition the courts to take away the guns of a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others or mentally unfit to own guns. It’s an expansion of last year’s law passed in response to the shooting allowing police officers to ask the courts for a risk protection order.
“Who better to determine if someone is at risk than someone living close to them,” Berman told reporters in the Capitol. “We don’t need more prayers. We need this change now.”
The bill includes other provisions, such as requiring the state to collect data on the “red flag” petitions that have been filed by law enforcement agencies across the state. Berman said she’s heard Broward County alone has had 400 since the law took effect July 1, but precise numbers are needed.
Another piece of the bill would require gun owners living with a person with a risk protection order, which preventsthem from owning a firearm, to keep weapons in a locked container.
Although the bill and other proposals from Democrats to expand gun control measures aren’t likely to get backing from Republicans in control of the Legislature, supporters of the bill pointed to the Parkland shooting and similar tragedies and were hopeful of getting the measure heard this year.
“The pendulum has been on the side of more gun owner safety for many, many years,” said Rep. Richard Stark, D-Weston, who plans to sponsor the House version of the bill.