Advertisement

Florida governor proposes new gun sale limits after school shooting

By Zachary Fagenson

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott urged state lawmakers on Friday to increase restrictions on buying guns and to strengthen school safety after a gunman killed 17 people at a school last week, proposals that gun control advocates said did not go far enough.

Scott said he would work with legislators during the next two weeks to raise the minimum age for buying any kind of gun in Florida from 18 to 21, with some exceptions for younger military or law enforcement officers.

Echoing similar calls by U.S. President Donald Trump, Scott also said he wanted to change laws to make it "virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun."

The Republican governor's proposals come amid a reignited national debate on gun rights, led in part by some of the student survivors of the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Students calling for tougher gun controls have traveled to meet with politicians in Tallahassee, the state capital, and Trump at the White House.

Scott's plan would outlaw the sale of bump stocks, an accessory that transforms a semiautomatic rifle into a weapon able to fire hundreds of rounds a minute. But he said he opposed an outright ban on assault rifles like the one used in the attack, as some students have demanded.

His plan closely mirrored proposed measures unveiled on Friday by leaders of the Republican-controlled state legislature.

Scott, who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and has received its highest rating for supporting gun rights, called for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school and for mandatory "active shooter training" for students and faculty.

He spoke as staff members were returning for the first time to the school in Parkland, where 14 students and three faculty members were killed in one of the deadliest school attacks in U.S. history.

"Everything was quiet, and looked like it was frozen in time," said Greg Pittman, a social studies teacher who joined about 30 colleagues steeling themselves over breakfast before heading to the school. Some could not bring themselves to return, he said, still too shaken by the horrors they witnessed.

Outside the school, some teachers gazed at the piles of flowers and makeshift memorials to the victims. One woman who brought balloons to add to the memorials fell to her knees in tears.

Students are due to return to class on Wednesday. Maintenance staff have used power washers to clean up the scene of the attack, but the building where the shooting occurred will remain closed.

Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

In remarks to reporters on Friday, Trump criticized the armed sheriff's deputy assigned to the school for doing a "poor job." The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned after an internal investigation found he failed to go inside and confront the shooter, the Broward County sheriff said on Thursday.

"When it came time to get in there and do something, he didn't have the courage or something happened," Trump said.

Gun control advocates welcomed Scott's steps to tighten laws, but some wanted more.

"If you look at what the governor's doing, they're very, very small, incremental changes," Julie Kessel, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said in a telephone call with reporters. "None of them get to the heart of what would really change gun violence, which is to ban assault weapons and close these loopholes immediately in background checks."

An NRA spokeswoman did not reply to an email seeking comment.

Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said Scott's plan to have at least one law enforcement officer for every 1,000 students fell short.

"There should be armed guards at every door," said Jeannette Formica, 50, who has a teenage son who attends a middle school near Stoneman.

(Reporting Zachary Fagenson in Parkland, Florida, and Jonathan Allen, Gina Cherelus and Dan Trotta in New York; writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)