Florida Lawmakers Pass First Gun Control Bill in Decades

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By Adam K. Raymond

... the bill raises the minimum buying age for all guns to 21, creates a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases and gives police broad new powers to confiscate firearms and ammunition from people deemed to be a threat. Its most controversial measure is the creation of a program to arm some teachers and school staff ...

Eligible to carry guns into schools would be a teacher who is a member of the U.S. Reserves or National Guard, in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, or is a current or former law enforcement officer. Staff members could volunteer for the program but classroom teachers who exclusively perform instruction would be blocked from the program.

The bill now goes to the desk of Republican governor Rick Scott, who has not said whether he will sign it ...

... According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 62 percent of Florida voters want to ban assault weapons and 96 percent want to strengthen background checks on all gun purchases. This bill does neither.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/florida-lawmakers-pass-first-gun-control-bill-in-decades.html

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1. FL governor urged to block plan to arm teachers

By Brendan Farrington ASSOCIATED PRESS MARCH 09, 2018

TALLAHASSEE — The statewide federation of Florida teachers unions urged Governor Rick Scott on Thursday to veto $67 million that the Legislature has set aside for a contentious program that would allow the training and arming of some public school employees.

The Florida Education Association said in a letter to Scott that only law enforcement officers should have guns in schools ...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/03/08/fla-governor-urged-block-plan-arm-teachers/42B07IinWsKqtTUGdbzkeN/story.html

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2. NAACP on FL Legislature's Decision to Arm Teachers

Last night, the Florida Legislature voted to allow teachers to carry weapons in schools. The NAACP finds the very idea of arming teachers as a solution to gun violence utterly absurd and misguided. We know that children of color are portrayed and seen as more dangerous, more culpable and less human than their White peers. Given this background, how can parents of Black children feel comfortable sending their children to a school where guns abound and where the perception of threat could have deadly consequences? Can one imagine telling a parent that their child has been shot in school not by an intruder, but by a teacher or staff person who felt threatened by them?

In two decades since the mass murder at Columbine, Colo., Florida has locked up over a million children for basic school discipline issues like talking back. Instead of investing $400 million to make our schools an armed camp, the NAACP instead calls for Floridians to embrace sane gun laws and reforms that make our communities and schools safer. This means universal background checks on any gun sale or transfer and banning military-style and semi-automatic assault weapons. Sensible gun policy that makes our communities safer would also mean funding the CDC to research gun violence as a public health issue ...

http://www.blackpressusa.com/press-room-naacp-on-the-florida-legislatures-decision-to-arm-teachers/

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3. Are school districts going to participate in armed guardians program?

By Jeffrey Solochek, Emily Mahoney
Published: March 8, 2018

... Officials in 10 of the state's largest systems, which educate nearly 60 percent of all Florida school children, said they have no intention of giving teachers or other staff guns to carry into classrooms.

"I believe the people carrying weapons should be law enforcement officers and not our employees," said Seminole County school superintendent Walt Griffin, echoing comments of his large-district peers. "I do not support our hard-working teachers having the responsibility of carrying a weapon."

The Broward, Duval and Hillsborough county school boards adopted formal statements Tuesday opposing the idea of arming school personnel, and calling for adequate funding to support sworn officers in the schools instead. A day earlier, Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho made clear his district's position, saying anyone who thinks arming educators is a solution is "absolutely out of their mind."

Also this week, a majority of Pasco County board members have signaled their dissent, as have officials in Pinellas County ...

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2018/03/08/are-school-districts-going-to-participate-in-armed-guardians-program/

[Fred Sanders]

10. 60% have already said fuck no. Maybe one or two districts, the boards, will give it a go but

not long until the teachers tell them to duck off. Rather predictable, which is why I support this bill....first gun regulation bill in decades NOT loved by the NRA is good with me.

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4. During visit to Stoneman Douglas High, DeVos touts program to arm teachers

Moriah Balingit The Washington Post
March 7, 2018 03:48 pm

During a visit Wednesday to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos highlighted a program to train and arm school personnel as "a model," saying it is something communities should consider adopting following one of the nation's deadliest school shootings ...

https://www.hudsonvalley360.com/article/during-visit-stoneman-douglas-high-devos-touts-program-arm-teachers-model?wallit_nosession=1

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5. NC teachers aren't crazy about the idea of being armed

... Among the 379 teachers who took part in the Elon University/Charlotte Observer/News & Observer poll, 78 percent oppose the idea of arming teachers.

Although the survey was confidential, some teachers were willing to speak on the record about the issue.

“Look, I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to kill anyone,” Leigh Sanders, a sixth-grade English teacher at Swift Creek Middle School in Johnston County told the newspapers.

“I want to teach, and if anyone wants to arm teachers, please for the love of country, let it be with school supplies, nurses, counselors and, above all else, trust" ...

http://www.greensboro.com/blogs/thinking_out_loud/allen-johnson-n-c-teachers-understandably-aren-t-crazy-about/article_52e0726a-aa45-5b46-93af-c974d772bc69.html

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6. IEA lobbyist: Dont arm teachers (IL)

Arming teachers is not a solution to prevent mass shootings in schools, a teachers’ representatives argued Wednesday at an Illinois House committee hearing.

Education specialists testified before the House’s committee on elementary and secondary education to speak about mental health solutions to prevent children from lashing out violently in school.

Sean Denney, a lobbyist for the Illinois Education Association said that one commonly raised solution, arming teachers, was not something his organization supported. The same went for armed guards on campuses.

“At this point in time, the Illinois Education Association’s opposed to adding guns in schools as a way of combating guns in schools,” he said ...

http://www.sj-r.com/news/20180307/iea-lobbyist-dont-arm-teachers-to-prevent-school-shootings

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7. Denfeld Teachers Respond to Idea of Arming Teachers (MI)

... Fisher says teachers have a job to educate students and not carry a gun.

"Arming teachers would confuse that. It would cause undue anxiety with students, not to mention teachers," said Fisher.

Fisher thinks that instead more money should be put towards mental health programs in schools.

Kovacovic, a world languages teacher at Denfeld, says the idea of arming teachers in schools is, "misguided," and "reactionary" ...

http://www.wdio.com/news/denfeld-teachers-respond-arming-teachers-/4817405/

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8. Teacher who survived Columbine reacts to call to arm educators

... “The same discussion happened right after the shooting at our school,” Porter said. “The discussion has never gone anywhere, and that’s why it’s continuing and maybe has ramped up, but we laughed about it. I remember naming teachers, ‘Can you imagine that teacher with a weapon? One, they wouldn’t want to do it and two, what?’ It still sounds ridiculous to me and I know people feel safe if they have a weapon, whereas I feel like militarizing another aspect of our lives just creates more fear in people’s minds and adds to the possibility of something else occurring as an accident” ...

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/education/mcgregor-teacher-who-survived-columbine-shooting-reacts-to-call-to/article_96bb8904-b44f-5e1c-ade4-eab553c6219b.html

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9. Time to vote out the NRA puppets

What kind of people are we that the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School, 16 killed and 19 wounded in San Bernardino, six adults killed in Orlando, nine killed and one wounded in Plano, Texas, 59 killed and 441 wounded in Las Vegas, 27 killed and 20 wounded in Sutherland Springs, Texas, six killed and 12 wounded in Rancho Tehama, California, and now the slaughter of 14 students and six adults in Parkland, Florida, is looked upon as acceptable collateral damage to the Second Amendment?

We seem to conveniently forget that you cannot exercise a constitutional right if it will result in harm to others, such as yelling “fire” in a crowded building. Freedom of speech is not an unequivocal right. It has constraints.

The Second Amendment has the same do-no-harm-to-others constraint. The type of weapon a person owns can be regulated by this amendment. Military assault weapons have no purpose in civilian society. Their high rate of fire is designed for warfare and not civilian use. They are designed to kill people. These military assault weapons are the firearm of choice by a person wanting to maximize his killing power in a short time period. Because of their unsuitability in civilian society and the presence of mentally ill citizens, we have the right to protect our citizens from this extreme danger. Risk of death outweighs ownership of these weapons ...

https://www.redding.com/story/opinion/readers/2018/03/08/time-vote-out-nra-puppets-help-save-children/399916002/