Campaign Action
Florida's sheriffs, in "workshops, convened by governor, hope to influence Legislature" pleaded for help in combatting gun violence. They want "more school resource officers, better background checks of gun buyers and giving police power to temporarily seize firearms from people committed under the Baker Act."
Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said a Florida resident can be involuntarily committed "15 times within the last month" and still legally buy a semi-automatic assault rifle like the one used in last week's massacre at a Broward high school.
Gualtieri said it's "wrong, it's erroneous, it's false" that if confessed mass murderer Nicolas Cruz had been Baker Acted, he couldn't get a gun. Those weapons should be confiscated by police while safeguarding a patient's legal rights, he said.
Meanwhile, here's what happened in the Florida legislature.
On their first full day lobbying Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee to change the state's gun laws, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School quickly learned change does not happen very fast in government, if at all.
With Douglas students in the gallery Tuesday, the Florida House voted down a motion to take up a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15 used by Nikolas Cruz when he killed 17 people at the school on Valentine's Day.
The legislation included raising the "firearm possession age from 18 to 21 and banning bump stocks." It failed, 36-71. No wonder it's called the Gunshine state.