The Florida legislature on Tuesday approved a comprehensive measure that was sort of about improving gun safety, one hopes.
Among other things, the Tampa Bay Times writes, the bill "requires a three-day waiting period to buy a firearm, raises the age to buy any gun from 18 to 21, and creates a voluntary and unique statewide program to train school personnel to carry concealed weapons."
The Florida legislature being what it is (i.e. dominated by NRA loyalists), the minimum age-raising provision and the background checks are the only ones that directly deal with reducing access to weapons capable of mass murder.
Democrats are, of course, disappointed and ready to call out their colleagues over their inaction.
Governor Rick Scott had said he wanted the bill to be free of any provision that explicitly arms teachers, one of the most controversial components Republicans have been pushing.
So the new bill lacks it — sort of. But not really.
The language doesn't expressly call for giving guns to all teachers, just the ones who do other activities.
That lead Democratic State Sen. from Fort Lauderdale Gary Farmer to call the measure out as "window dressing" that still in effect arms teachers…as long as said teachers also serve as coaches, club facilitators or the like.
"Instead of removing guns from classrooms, this amendment simply provides an illusionary limitation on the class of teachers who may carry, and provides for numerous exceptions to that rule," he said in an emailed statement.
The only ones that wouldn't have the option of carrying a gun around in the classroom are those who are exclusively classroom teachers who don't, say, coach lacrosse or whatever.
He added that the bill's language is written in such a way that basically allows virtually anyone else in the school — "school counselors, psychologists, librarians, cafeteria workers, learning specialists, adjunct educators and physical education teachers" — to carry.
"While I support some of the better features of this bill, such as restrictions on firearm purchases for those under the age of 21, the ban on bump stocks, additional mental health funding, and school hardening, I will be unable to support this legislation as long as it allows civilians to be armed in the presence of our children," Farmer continued, adding that if the bill stays as-is once it hits the governor's desk, he would urge Scott to veto it.
Earlier in the day, Democrats released a list of 81 gun safety measures party lawmakers have tried to pass in the last 19 years. Of those, two have passed.
This article appears in Mar 1-8, 2018.