Florida bill allowing teachers to carry guns goes to governor

By Whitney Tipton

Florida lawmakers sent a bill to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday that would allow teachers to carry firearms at school in response to the 2018 Parkland shooting.

Wikimedia Commons/Fabrice Florin

On Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire on students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 students and staff.

Florida’s House voted 65-47 in favor of the measure that permits teachers to carry a gun after they receive 144 hours of training, county school board approval, and a psychological evaluation, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel. The Florida Senate passed its version 22-17 earlier in April.

DeSantis is likely to sign the bill and has publicly supported the legislation. It modifies 2018’s school-safety bill that left teachers out of school staff permitted to be armed, according to Orlando’s Fox affiliate, Fox35.

The bill was aimed to deter those who might harm students, according to Republican Rep. Chuck Brannan, who is also a retired law enforcement officer.

“This bill is the ultimate school-hardening law. It allows the good guy to stop the bad,” he said.

The measure includes additional school safety provisions including increased reporting of school safety incidents, revised school-based mental health guidelines, and a standardized assessment procedure for potentially dangerous students.

The bill came about through recommendations made by the state commission formed in the wake of the Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School shooting in Parkland in February 2018. Seventeen high school students and staff were killed by a lone gunman during the shooting.

“Our law enforcement officers failed us on Feb 14, 2018,” said Republican Rep. Dane Eagle. “When they can’t get there to save others , I would hope that someone else in that room has the ability to do so.”

No House Democrats voted for the bill, and five Republicans voted against it. “We are creating a police state. It is wrong,” said Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb, according to The Hill. “Teachers need to teach.”

The Giffords Law Center, a gun-control group, was also opposed to the legislation and provided legislators with dozens of examples where guns were mishandled on school property.

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Images courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Wikimedia Commons/Fabrice Florin

5 thoughts on “Florida bill allowing teachers to carry guns goes to governor

  1. Psychopaths don’t recognize Psychopaths. That’s why so many are under the VT Dome.

  2. A State with problem solving common sense.. Tear down that “Groper Biden”
    Gun Free Zone sign and replace with enter with a gun you WILL BE SHOT DEAD. sign.

  3. Psychopaths do not obey laws. The rest of us are effectively handicapped by them. Advantage: Psychopaths. Thomas Jefferson quoted Cesare Beccaria’s 1767 words, “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” Which is why the assailants prefer Gun Free Zones.

  4. Way to go Florida, you had enough carnage in your schools !!

    Maybe you’ll wake up the rest of the country with it’s ” Gun Free Zone ” foolishness, rendering
    our schools as shooting galleries !!

    Criminals & Crazies pick easy targets.

    • I agree. Every Sate should pass such a law. The crazy’s and the criminals only attack the weak and defenseless.

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