Six months ago, no bill to tighten gun laws would have managed to emerge from committee in the Florida legislature. But, for the first time in three decades, in the wake of the Parkland high school massacre, in a state where 1.8 million people have permits to carry concealed firearms, a majority of lawmakers have chosen to make the state’s gun laws slightly stricter. Emphasis on “slightly.” And even that was more than the lobbyists at the National Rifle Association could countenance.
The best one can say for the bill is “better than nothing.” In spite of some media labeling this a possible nationwide game-changer, the bill doesn’t include some of the most moderate proposals for reform. And even the benefits from the small changes it does make are tempered by its provision for arming school employees.
The bill raises the age of buyers of rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, imposes a three-day waiting period for rifle and shotgun purchases, allocates about $300 million for mental health, school safety and school security programs, and sets aside $67 million to arm and train selected school employees. There’s another $1 million for tearing down the building where the slaughter occurred and putting up a memorial on the site of the 17 slayings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.
The extensive, often acrimonious debate over the bill had plenty of tearful references to those slayings, and lawmakers toured the bloodstained hallways where the victims fell. However, two key demands of students who survived the massacre—and their allies nationwide, young and old—aren’t included in the bill: expanded background checks and an assault weapons ban.
While every purchaser of a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer must undergo a modest background check, this does not apply to sales between private parties. No move was made in the legislature to extend background checks to private sales, including those at gun shows. While Florida makes these a county option, even in the seven counties that have passed ordinances requiring such checks, the law isn’t enforced.
Nor, despite several failed attempts by Democrats to amend the bill, did legislators ban semi-automatic assault weapons. Hardly a surprise given the NRA’s vigorous opposition to a ban that is supported by two-thirds of Americans. As in previous mass shootings, the weapon of choice in Parkland was a semi-automatic rifle outfitted with detachable high-capacity magazines capable of firing 30 rounds in just a few seconds. There are Democratic bills in both the U.S. House and Senate to ban assault weapons, but they are going nowhere given the current majority in Congress.
The bill now awaits Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s signature. He has 15 days to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his name attached to it. "I'm going to take the time and I'm going to read the bill and I'm going to talk to families," he said, referring to the people who lost kin in the Parkland massacre. He did not mention whether he would be talking to the NRA. The gun lobby supports arming teachers but opposes any move to raise the age of firearm purchases and waiting periods.
The vote in the Florida House was a bipartisan 67-50. Dan Sweeney reports:
With any federal gun-law reforms stymied by Republican intransigence and allegiance to the NRA, it’s the states where any hope of stricter gun laws lies. If the best they can get passed is the Florida model, it’s all the more reason to make November a blue blowout.