It’s the first anniversary of the massacre at Parkland and Florida lawmakers are proposing a bill to allow teachers to conceal carry handguns.
Florida lawmakers marked the first anniversary of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland by pushing forward a new effort to put even more guns in schools.
The bill, which cleared the Senate Education Committee along party lines Tuesday, would allow teachers with concealed carry permits to bring their guns to school provided they receive more than 100 hours of firearms training from local sheriff’s departments. It will be considered by the full Florida Senate when it comes back into session in March. The bill is expected to pass.
“I want someone there to protect my eight grandchildren and their generation,” Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala), said during Tuesday’s hearing. “They deserve to have someone ready.”
RELATED: Parkland keeps memory of shooting alive
But Florida schools already allow certain security personnel to carry weapons. And by its own admission, the Senate Education Committee said it had no data to support the idea that arming more staff is an effective method to prevent or stop school shootings, CBS 47 reported. The committee also failed to clearly explain how firearms would be securely stored within the classroom, according to the news outlet.
The committee’s acceptance of the bill flies in the face of criticism from many shooting survivors and their families, who have spent the past year fighting for gun control. They staged marches around the country and the world to call for stricter gun laws. They inspired students across the country to walk out of their own schools in protest of having to live in fear of school shootings. And the parents of children who died in Parkland took lawmakers to task for their inaction on gun violence, even when the parents were blatantly disrespected by those same people in power time and again.
Arming teachers actually makes schools less safe, according to Bacardi Jackson, managing attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
