Florida Gov Signs School Safety Measure Into Law

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed his legislature's narrowly approved response to the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday after meeting with victims of the tragedy. The measure isn't what he asked for and may lead to a recoil from the National Rifle Association as he prepares for a possible Senate bid after he wraps up his second and final term.

"There are things in this bill that I oppose and I've been pretty open about that," Scott said. "I still think law enforcement officers should be the ones to protect our schools. I've heard all the arguments for teachers to be armed and while this bill was significantly changed on this topic, I am still not persuaded."

Scott said he was glad that the new law does not require school districts to allow teachers and others to be armed, something that he has opposed. The legislation marks Florida's first new gun changes in years and is particularly unusual coming from a Republican governor and a Republican legislature.

Florida's Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson applauded the governor's decision to sign the measure but said that more should be done in the future.

"This is a first step, and if we really want to do something to combat gun violence — like what we saw in Parkland — we must require universal background checks on the purchase of a gun and get these assault rifles off our streets," he said in a statement. "Until we've done that, we still have a lot of work to do.”

ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon warned that the legislation may lead to unintended consequences as in the so-called guardian program, enabling school employees and many teachers to carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and their school district agrees to participate.

“We urge local school boards to focus on investing in positive school climates, with programming designed to nurture students’ developing executive functioning skills and identities," Howard said. "Schools should also take full advantage of the bill’s additional resources to improve students’ access to mental health professionals and collaborative efforts with state and local agencies and organizations. However, we urge school boards not to accept the legislature’s dangerous invitation to introduce more guns into Florida schools and classrooms or to further criminalize our students."

But while the measure falls short of what survivors demanded, a number of Parkland families have viewed it as an improvement over the status quo that allowed a troubled former Stoneman Douglas student to purchase an AR-15 assault rifle and then allegedly use it to kill 17 students and faculty while wounding 16 others.

The new school safety law also provides new mental health programs for schools and improves communication between school districts, law enforcement and state agencies.

The measure raises the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and creates a waiting period on sales of the weapons.

Another provision establishes an anonymous tip line where students and others can report threats to schools and bans bump stocks.

Scott has gotten top marks from the NRA in the past for supporting gun-rights measures, but he broke with the lobbying group after last month’s slayings. He doesn’t support arming teachers and he had wanted lawmakers to adopt his own $500 million proposal to put one or more law enforcement officer in every school.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott stands with Andy Pollack (left) who lost his daugther Meadow Pollack, 18, and Ryan Petty who lost his daughter Alaina Petty, 14, during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.