Florida Gov. Rick Scott revealed a $500 million plan Friday to boost school security that would, among other things, bar “violent or mentally ill” persons from purchasing weapons.
Persons under the age of 21 would also be prohibited from buying guns and so-called bump stocks would be outlawed, Scott said.
Scott did not call for arming teachers as President Donald Trump has suggested and declined to ban the semi-automatic AR-15 type rifle that Nikolas Cruz allegedly used to killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day at the high school in Parkland, Florida.
“Banning specific weapons is not going to fix this,” said Scott.
Scott also called for $450 million to upgrade school security with metal detectors and other measures and assigning a “law enforcement officer in every public school” and expand “mental health initiatives.”
The governor’s announcement came a day after Trump expressed support for arming teachers — an idea that many critics are calling a “colossally stupid idea.”
Also, Scott’s move to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill appears to be an about face for the governor, who signed a bill in 2011 that barred doctors from asking patients whether they own a gun, unless the provider “believes that this information is relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety, or the safety of others.”
A Florida federal appeals court in February 2017 ruled that some of the provisions were unconstitutional, including the part that prevented health providers from asking whether patients owned guns.
Trump in February 2017 rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.
The developments came on the heels of revelations that Scot Peterson, the Broward County sheriff’s deputy assigned to protect Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, never went inside the school or tried to stop the accused 19-year-old gunman.