TALLAHASSEE, Fla. _ Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law sweeping changes to school safety and gun access on Friday _ a measure crafted in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
The bill balanced "our individual rights with need for public safety," Scott said. "It's an example to the entire country that government can, and has, moved fast."
Under the new law:
_ The minimum age will be raised for people purchasing rifles and other long guns from 18 to 21, and there will be a three-day waiting period.
_ There will be a ban on the sale or possession of "bump stocks," which allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic fully automatic weapons.
_ It allows the arming of school staff who are not exclusively classroom teachers.
_ The measure provides $400 million for mental health and school safety programs.
_ It requires every school in Florida to have a threat assessment team to meet monthly.
_ It establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which will investigate systemic failures in the Parkland school shooting, and develop recommendations.
_ It creates a new legal process to take firearms from people who make violent threats to themselves or others.
Most of the law takes effect immediately, although the ban on the sale and possession of bump stocks kicks in on Oct. 1, 2018, to give people who currently own them time to get rid of them.
Scott has disagreed from the beginning on arming school staff and hinted some of the funding for this could be rerouted to hire more school resource officers.
"I still think law enforcement officers should be the ones to protect our schools," he said. "I've already talked to the Florida Legislature about redirecting funds that aren't used for this program for more law enforcement officers at our schools. If I veto the funding for this program now, this funding cannot be used for additional law enforcement officers this year."
The armed school staffer program is named for Aaron Feis, the assistant football coach at Stoneman Douglas who was among the 17 people killed in the shooting.
There is $67 million earmarked for the coming year, but it's unclear how much will be used. Superintendents at the state's largest school districts have already said they would not arm teachers.
After the bill's signing, the first of the session, the families of victims gathered outside the governor's office. Tony Montaldo, whose daughter, Gina, died in the shooting, spoke for all of them.
"We applaud the leaders and members of the Florida Legislature that came together quickly to find common ground, putting aside their differences to move the bill forward," he said. "We have paid a terrible price for this progress. We call on more states to follow Florida's lead and create meaningful legislation to make all schools safer. This time must be different."
The bill first appeared in the Legislature a week after the shooting, about the same time 100 students from the high school barnstormed through the Capitol demanding change. It was part of a larger movement of gun control activism by students that will culminate in a march on Washington on March 24.
In Tallahassee, the students cited age restrictions and an assault weapons ban as their top priorities for the legislation. And while the final product includes age limitations, the ban never got in the bill, despite numerous attempts by Democrats.
The bill has made for strange bedfellows, with the Florida Education Association and the National Rifle Association both lobbying against the bill.
The Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, said more than 200,000 school employees could qualify to carry firearms, which would "do more harm than good."
At the same time, the NRA was outraged by the first gun control measure to pass the Florida Legislature in decades.
