Before Esteban Santiago allegedly entered a crowded airport terminal with gunfire, Florida lawmakers had already come up with their solution to the problem: more guns in airport terminals.
Current Florida law prevents people with concealed-carry permits from bringing firearms into airport terminals, schools, colleges, courtrooms, bars, meetings of legislators and several other places.. But under a bill filed by Republican state Rep. Jake Raburn, those parts of airport terminals outside the secure area guarded by metal detectors would be clear for carrying guns.
"I do personally feel like had this bill been in place already, there could have been the potential for people to protect themselves in that situation," Raburn said.
Five people died and six more were wounded Friday when Santiago allegedly took a gun he had checked on a flight from Anchorage, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, loaded it in the baggage hall's bathroom and came out shooting.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said it's time to look at whether federal law allowing guns in checked baggage should be revisited.
"We need to review not only the question of whether people should be able to travel with their firearms even if they're in checked baggage, but I think we need to take a hard look at the security around baggage claim areas and not just leave it at that," she said. "There are many unsecure areas in facilities that the public travels _ train stations, port terminals, and baggage claim areas, so certainly those procedures need to be reviewed and I'm going to be addressing that when I go back to Washington."
But such changes might not have much effect. Even a ban on firearms aboard planes _ currently limited to checked baggage _ would not prevent someone from entering an airport terminal with a gun.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, whose agency is responsible for security in Fort Lauderdale's terminals, said he recognizes the potential futility of such efforts, but he's strongly against ideas such as Raburn's to allow more guns in airport terminals.
"I'm opposed to it, just as I am opposed to open carry in schools," he said. "It makes us less safe, as it would hinder law enforcement by legally allowing potential active shooters to openly carry their deadly weapons right into airports to carry out their heinous attacks."
The Transportation Security Administration has no position on the carrying of firearms in the unsecured area of the airport. A TSA spokesman said it was "not within our purview."
Raburn's bill has no companion in the Senate, but Republican state Sen. Greg Steube has filed a bill that would not only allow concealed-carry permit holders to carry guns in airport terminals, but also strike down bans at government meetings, schools and colleges. It would also allow gun owners to carry their weapons openly.
Raburn said he is still looking for a senator to file a simple repeal of the ban on carrying in airport terminals, and is considering whether to roll his bill into a larger one that would mirror Steube's language.
"While I have supported the other bills that are rolled into Sen. Steube's package, this was the one that was most important to me," Raburn said. "I carry my weapon wherever I go, but I travel a lot and it's something I've thought about a lot as I have to comply with the law."
For law enforcement, shootings like Friday's are more about reaction than prevention.
"When you have a person that could be suffering from a severe mental illness, or you have what we call a lone wolf assassin that's ready to conduct some cowardly, heinous act, there's not much law enforcement or anybody else can do about it," Israel said.
