Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Friday proposed a sweeping plan to prevent future school shootings in the state — including a 21-year-old age minimum for buying guns and putting cops in every public school.
“I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun,” Scott said at a press conference held a week after a teen gunman slaughtered 17 people at Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle.
“I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who is a danger to themselves or others to use a gun.”
Military members and their spouses and members of law enforcement would still be able to purchase guns at 18 years old.
Under Scott’s proposal, anyone who is involuntarily committed for psychiatric reasons would have to surrender all of their guns — and wouldn’t be able to get them back or buy new ones until they’d had a court hearing.
Anyone with a restraining order against them for stalking, cyberstalking, dating violence, repeat violence, sexual violence or domestic violence would also be banned from buying or possessing weapons.
He also wants to create a “violent threat restraining order” program, where a family member, cop or “community welfare expert” can ask a court to ban a violent or mentally ill person from buying or possessing weapons.
Every public school would be required to have at least one law enforcement officer — either sworn sheriff’s deputies or cops — present when kids are on campus. He proposed one officer for every 1,000 students.
Schools would also be required to have active shooter training drills in the first week of every semester, mandatory crisis intervention training for all faculty members, and a “threat assessment team” composed of teachers, officers and government officials to monitor potential threats on a monthly basis.
Scott says he will boost funding for mental health initiatives and to give schools more metal detectors, bulletproof glass, steel doors and upgraded locks.
The governor claimed his plan will be far more effective in stopping gun violence than “a mass takeaway of Second Amendment rights for all Americans.”
“Keeping guns away from dangerous people and people with mental issues is what we need to do,” Scott said, noting that he is an NRA member.
The state legislature would have to approve Scott’s plan — and he’s trying to push the package through in the next two weeks, before the current session ends.