PARKLAND, Fla. (WFLA/AP) – The Florida Senate Rules Committee has voted 9-4 for a bill that would raise the age to purchase rifles from 18 to 21 and create a three-day waiting period to buy the weapons. Those rules are already in place for handguns. The bill also would make it easier to block gun sales or confiscate weapons from people who show violent tendencies or signs of mental illness.
The bill approved Monday also would let Florida counties authorize teachers to carry concealed weapons in school if they undergo law enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriff’s office.
But the committee refused to add an overall assault-style weapon ban in the bill, voting that amendment down 6-7 after more than two hours of testimony from dozens of gun safety advocates. Those advocates pleaded with lawmakers to ban weapons like the AR-15 used to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day.
After the vote, many of the nearly 300 protesters in the room began chanting, “Shame! Shame!” and “Vote them out!”
Among them was Andy Oliver, a pastor from St. Petersburg.
“Many of you have constantly and consistently scored an A with the NRA. Sadly, after the shooting, you will get to continue to keep making your A, while sadly 17 students from Parkland won’t have the opportunity to make any more grades,” Oliver told the committee.
“I will conclude.even Scalia and his opinion in Heller knew the second amendment does not cover assault rifles. So don’t be a coward and hide behind the second amendment and the NRA. The blood of these children and the one coming after that is on your hands.
The bill still needs approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee before going to the full chamber. A similar House bill will be considered in committee Tuesday.
The Senate Committee passed The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which includes:
Mental Health:
- Authorizes a law enforcement officer who is taking a person into custody for an involuntary examination under the Baker Act to seize and hold a firearm or ammunition from the person for at least 72 hours, or until the person appears at the agency to retrieve the firearm or ammunition.
- Prohibits a person who has been adjudicated mentally defective or who has been committed to a mental institution from owning or possessing a firearm until a court orders otherwise.
- Creates a process for a law enforcement officer or law enforcement agency to petition a court for a risk protection order to temporarily prevent persons who are at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms when a person poses a significant danger to himself or herself or others, including significant danger as a result of a mental health crisis or violent behavior.
- Provides a court can issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
- Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order is issued.
- Provides a process for a risk protection order to be vacated or extended.
- Codifies the Multiagency Service Network for Students with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SEDNET) as a function of the DOE in partnership with other state, regional, and local entities to facilitate collaboration and communication between the specified entities.
- Creates the mental health assistance allocation to provide supplemental funding to assist school districts and charter schools in establishing or expanding comprehensive mental health programs, and to connect students and families with appropriate services.
Firearms Safety:
- Requires a three-day waiting period for all firearms, not just handguns, or until the background check is completed, whichever is later. Provides exceptions for:
- Concealed weapons permit holders, and
- For firearms other than handguns, an exception for individuals who have completed a 16 hour hunter safety course.
- Prohibits a person under 21 years of age from purchasing a firearm, and a licensed firearm dealers, importers, and manufacturers, from selling a firearm, except in the case of a member of the military, or a law enforcement or correctional officer.
- Prohibits a bump-fire stock from being imported, transferred, distributed, transported, sold, keeping for sale, offering or exposing for sale, or giving away within the state.
School Safety:
- Establishes the Commission on School Safety and Security within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate system failures in the Parkland school shooting and prior mass shooting events, and develop recommendations for system improvements.
- Codifies the Office of Safe Schools (office) within the Florida Department of Education (DOE), and specifies purpose for the office is to serve as the state education agency’s primary coordinating division for promoting and supporting safe-learning environments.
- Creates the Florida Sheriff’s Marshal Program within the DOE as a voluntary program to assist school districts and public schools in enhancing the safety and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to Florida’s public schools and campuses.
- Establishes the Public School Emergency Response Learning System Program to assist school personnel in preparing for and responding to active emergency situations, and to implement local notification systems for all Florida public schools.
- Requires each district school board and school district superintendent to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to assign one or more safe-school officers at each school facility, and:
- Requires each district school board to designate a district school safety specialist to serve as the district’s primary point of public contact for public school safety functions.
- Requires each school district to designate school safety specialists and a threat assessment team at each school, and requires the team to operate under the district school safety specialist’s direction.
- Clarifies the applicability of public records exemptions for security systems and plans to give confidence that video footage that could reveal the location and capabilities of security cameras is exempt from public records.
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