The Florida Legislature’s is voting this week on what’s being described as a school safety bill. There’s a lot of gun legislation in there as well. The Florida Senate discussed the school safety legislation Monday after a weekend session.
On Saturday the Republican-dominated Senate rejected nearly fifty amendments from Democrats. Some of them were: banning assault weapons (though it briefly looked like that would be included); allowing local governments to pass strong gun laws; banning high-capacity magazines; creating a gun registry; requiring background checks for gun purchases outside of Florida.
Here’s what was still in the bill as of Monday morning: Expand existing 3-day waiting period on handguns to all firearms; raise minimum age to buy rifle from 18 to 21; ban bump stocks; provide mental health money; create office of safe schools; “marshal program,” and safety commission.
Our guest in studio was Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins. She’s executive director of the Hillsborough teacher’s union, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association (HCTA).
In addition to the school safety bill we also talked about HCTA’s negotiations with the school district and about the Legislature’s major education bill, HB 7055.
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