Know Your Value</s>Weeks after the Florida school massacre that left 17 people dead, many Americans were absolutely outraged and called for the immediate need for stricter gun laws. Well the Florida House of Representatives just made a step in the right direction by passing a new bill that will hopefully spark a bigger change.

Reported by TIME, earlier this week the Florida House passed a new school safety bill that raises the gun buying age in Florida to 21. This is of course in response to the Parkland school massacre, but also due to the protests that followed after the shooting led by students.

The Florida House passed a school safety bill Wednesday that includes new restrictions on rifle sales and a program to arm some teachers, sending the measure to the governor for his signature. The vote of 67-50 reflected a mix of Republicans and Democrats in support and opposition. The measure, a response to the shootings at a Parkland high school that left 17 dead, is supported by the victims’ families.

Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs said she did not like the idea of arming teachers, but she voted yes. Republican Rep. Jay Fant said raising the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 was unconstitutional, and he voted no. “There is a cultural divide in this room, in this state and across the country. And there’s a bill before us that is not perfect,” said Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs, whose district includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The bill would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and create a waiting period on sales of the weapons. It would also create a so-called guardian program that would let school employees and many teachers carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and if the school district decides to participate in the program. Other provisions would create new mental health programs for schools; establish an anonymous tip line where students and others could report threats to schools, ban bump stocks and improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies.

Although the bill passed, Florida Governor Rick Scott has declined to publicly say whether or not he would sign the legislation.

Scott has stressed that he doesn’t support arming teachers and pushed lawmakers to adopt his proposal, which called for at least one law enforcement officer in every school and one for every thousand students who attend a school. “I’m going to take the time and I’m going to read the bill and I’m going to talk to families,” Scott told the press.

This is a step in the right direction, however one can’t help but think that it’s not enough and a lot more needs to be done to produce lasting change.

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Also On 101.1 The Wiz:</s>Florida state lawmakers were due to vote once more on Wednesday on a gun-safety package that would raise the legal age for buying rifles, impose a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales and allow the arming of some public school personnel.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.: Florida state lawmakers were due to vote once more on Wednesday on a gun-safety package that would raise the legal age for buying rifles, impose a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales and allow the arming of some public school personnel.

The legislation, which narrowly cleared the state Senate on Monday, was spurred by the shooting deaths last month of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the remarkable lobbying campaign mounted by young survivors of the massacre.

The state House of Representatives rejected three dozen amendments to the bill on Tuesday, including a last-ditch bid to strip the legislation of any measures permitting school staff to carry guns to work.

The bill was scheduled to return to the House floor on Wednesday for what could be a final vote. Any amendments offered at that stage would require a two-thirds vote for approval.

If the bill passes the House unchanged, it would automatically become law within 15 days, unless vetoed or signed by the governor beforehand.

Swift action in the Republican-controlled Tallahassee statehouse, where the National Rifle Association has long held sway, signalled a possible turning point in the national debate between gun control advocates and proponents of firearms rights enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The bill under consideration this week represented both a break with the NRA on gun sale restrictions and a partial acceptance of its proposition that the best defense against armed criminals is the presence of "good guys with guns."

To that end, the bill creates a program allowing local sheriffs to deputize school staff as volunteer armed "guardians," subject to special training, mental health and drug screening and a license to carry a concealed weapon. Each school district would decide whether to opt into the program.

But classroom teachers are excluded as participants unless they meet one of three narrow criteria - they are Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps instructors, serve in the U.S. military or are former police officers.

Otherwise, only non-teacher personnel are eligible, such as administrators, guidance counsellors, librarians and coaches.

The carve-out for teachers was aimed at winning support from Governor Rick Scott, a Republican and staunch NRA ally who nevertheless is opposed to arming teachers. Many parents, law enforcement officials and legislators in both parties likewise object to allowing guns in the classroom.

U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced support for arming teachers as a deterrent to gun violence in schools.

A spokeswoman for Scott has said he considered the bill a "step in the right direction" but had concerns with the proposed three-day waiting period for purchases of all firearms. A three-day wait currently applies in Florida only to handgun sales.

Another key provision of the bill would raise the minimum legal age for all gun purchases in the state to 21. The minimum age for handguns nationally is already 21. But a person can be as young as 18 to buy a rifle in Florida.

Nikolas Cruz, charged with killing 14 students and three adult educators in Parkland on Feb. 14 was 18 years old when he legally purchased the semiautomatic AR-15-style assault rifle used in the massacre, police have said.

While state legislators voted against banning assault weapons outright in Florida, the bill would outlaw "bump stocks" that enable a semiautomatic weapon to be fired as if it were a fully automatic machine-gun.

The bill also makes it easier for police to temporarily seize guns from people involuntarily committed or deemed a danger to themselves or others by a court.

Authorities have said Cruz had a history of mental issues, numerous encounters with police and was expelled from Stoneman Douglas High School last year for disciplinary problems. Law enforcement agencies also acknowledged receiving multiple warnings about his potential for violence before the shooting.</s>(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File). FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2018 file photo, Nikolas Cruz, accused of murdering 17 people in the Florida high school shooting, appears in court for a status hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cruz...

(AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser). Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, right, D-Coral Springs, regains his composure during his debate of the school safety bill as Rep. Shevrin D. Jones, D-West Park, looks on just prior to the vote at the Florida Capital in Tallaha...

(Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times via AP). Rep. Jose Oliva, R- Miami Lakes, is hugged and congratulated by House members as the gun and school safety bill passed the Florida House 67-50 in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday, March 7, 2018. Oliva shepherd the bil...

(Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times via AP). Rep. Jose Oliva, R- Miami Lakes, front, and other members of the Florida House, applaud Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School parent Andrew Pollack, who's daughter, Meadow Pollack, was killed in the school shooting...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - After the Florida House narrowly passed a school safety bill with new restrictions on rifle sales and a program to arm some teachers, all eyes now turn to Gov. Rick Scott, who has declined to say if he will sign it.

"I'm going to take the time and I'm going to read the bill and I'm going to talk to families," Scott told reporters Wednesday.

Scott has repeatedly said he doesn't support arming teachers and had pushed lawmakers adopt his own proposal, which called for at least one law enforcement officer in every school and one for every thousand students who attend a school.

The 67-50 House vote reflected a mix of Republicans and Democrats in support and opposition. The measure, a response to the shootings at a Parkland high school that left 17 dead, is supported by the victims' families.

Andrew Pollack, who lost his 18-year-old daughter Meadow in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and Ryan Petty, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Alaina, said there was enough good in the bill that it should pass.

"More needs to be done, and it's important for the country to be united in the same way the 17 families united in support of this bill," Pollack said after the vote. "My precious daughter Meadow's life was taken, and there's nothing I can do to change that, but make no mistake, I'm a father and I'm on a mission. I'm on a mission to make sure I'm the last dad to ever read a statement of this kind."

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a former Parkland city commissioner, ended the eight hours of debate with an emotional account of seeing the high school after the shooting, attending victims' funerals and working with students and families while the House was forming the legislation. He broke down in tears after talking about how his 4-year-old son's writing teacher lost her daughter in the attack.

"You don't need to stand with me. I don't need you to stand with me. I need you to stand with the families," Moskowitz said.

Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs said she did not like the idea of arming teachers, but she voted yes. Republican Rep. Jay Fant said raising the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 was unconstitutional, and he voted no.

"There is a cultural divide in this room, in this state and across the country. And there's a bill before us that is not perfect," said Jacobs, whose district includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The bill would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and create a waiting period on sales of the weapons. It would also create a so-called guardian program that would let school employees and many teachers carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and if the school district decides to participate in the program.

Other provisions would create new mental health programs for schools; establish an anonymous tip line where students and others could report threats to schools, ban bump stocks and improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies.

Fant, who is running for attorney general, said the gun restrictions violate the constitution.

"I just can't imagine that Nikolas Cruz can commit such a heinous crime and then as a result we tell, potentially, a 20-year-old single mother living alone that she cannot purchase a firearm to defend herself," Fant said.

Shooting suspect Cruz was formally charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder Wednesday, which could mean a death sentence if he is convicted.

The indictment returned by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale also charges the 19-year-old with 17 counts of attempted murder for the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 people died and more than a dozen others were wounded.

Cruz's public defender has said he will plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table, which would mean a life prison sentence. Prosecutors have 45 days to decide whether they want to seek the death penalty.

James and Kimberly Snead, the couple who gave Cruz a home after his mother died late last year, testified before the grand jury. James Snead and the couple's attorney, Jim Lewis, wore silver "17" pins to honor the victims of the shooting.

"We'll let justice take its course at this point," Lewis said. "They still don't know what happened, why this happened. They don't have any answers. They feel very badly for everybody."

Anderson reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Replogle reported from Parkland, Florida. Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro, David Fischer and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Florida’s Republican-controlled Senate approved sweeping reforms to the state’s gun law on Monday that raise the minimum purchase age and add a three-day waiting period in response to the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history last month.

Senators approved the legislation after an amendment removed a provision to arm most teachers. That was designed in part to increase support from many parents, law enforcement officials and lawmakers in both parties - including Republican Governor Rick Scott - who objected to the idea.

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The exclusion was adopted by voice vote as part of a package of legislation the Senate passed a short time later, 20-18, to raise the minimum legal age for buying all guns in Florida to 21 and impose a three-day waiting period for any gun purchase.

The bill now moves to Florida’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The minimum age for handguns nationally is already 21. However, a person can be as young as 18 to buy a rifle in Florida, with no waiting period.

The legislation comes about a month after a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with a semi-automatic AR-15-style assault rifle and opened fire, killing 17 students and staff members.

The man accused of the massacre was 18 when he legally purchased the rifle he used, authorities said.

The bill passed by the Senate represents a break with the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun rights lobby, which has resisted proposals to raise age limits or impose new waiting limits.

A House committee approved similar legislation last week, including a provision allowing sheriffs to create voluntary programs for deputizing school personnel as armed “marshals,” subject to school district approval and special training. U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced support for such a plan, also advocated by the NRA.

Under the amended Senate bill, classroom teachers would be excluded from carrying guns to work unless they were part of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program or members of the U.S. military or former police officers. Other school personnel would be eligible to participate.

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A spokeswoman for the governor said Scott, who was endorsed by the NRA and received its highest rating for supporting gun rights, would review the bill in its final form before deciding whether to support or oppose it.

“The governor is against arming teachers,” spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said. Scott “still has concerns” with the three-day waiting period, which he has opposed in the past, she said.

The Florida Senate rejected an amendment to ban assault weapons at the weekend.

The Senate bill as it was passed echoes a number of other proposals endorsed by Scott after the Feb. 14 massacre, including new powers for police to temporarily seize guns from people involuntarily committed or deemed by a court a danger to themselves or others.

It also allows police to petition a court for a “risk-protection” order barring an individual from possessing firearms if that person is judged as dangerous because of a mental illness or violent behavior.

Authorities have said the accused Parkland gunman, Nikolas Cruz, had a history of mental issues, numerous encounters with police and was expelled from the high school last year for unspecified disciplinary problems.

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Federal and state law enforcement have also acknowledged receiving multiple warnings about his potential for violence before the shooting.

The Senate bill also provides nearly $400 million to pay for various school safety and mental health initiatives.

A group of parents from Stoneman Douglas High held a news conference outside the school on Monday urging legislators to enact meaningful legislation in time for adjournment on Friday.

Max Schachter, whose son was among those killed in Parkland, said parents hosted a meeting of 25 law enforcement officials and other experts from across the country to discuss school safety, and all opposed arming teachers.

“Not a single expert said that was a good idea,” Schachter said.</s>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Three weeks after the Parkland high school shooting, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has a gun-control bill on his desk that challenges the National Rifle Association but falls short of what the Republican and survivors of the massacre demanded.

Now he must decide whether to sign it. Scott has not said what he will do, and he plans to take up the issue Friday with relatives of 17 people slain in the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“I’m going to take the time and I’m going to read the bill and I’m going to talk to families,” he said.

State lawmakers delivered the reform package Thursday. The governor has 15 days to sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.

The measure would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and extend a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns. It would also create a so-called guardian program enabling school employees and many teachers to carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and their school districts agree to participate.

Other provisions would create new mental health programs for schools and establish an anonymous tip line where students and others could report threats to schools. The bill would also ban bump stocks that allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire and seek to improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies.

Scott has received top marks from the NRA in the past for supporting gun-rights measures, but he broke with the lobbying group after last month’s slayings, which reinvigorated the gun-control movement.

The governor, who is expected to seek a U.S. Senate seat later this year, has called for raising the minimum age to purchase any type of gun, but he does not support arming teachers. Instead, he wanted lawmakers to adopt his own $500 million proposal to put at least one law enforcement officer in every school.

The NRA opposes raising age limits to buy weapons or imposing new waiting periods. In a statement Thursday, NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer called the bill “a display of bullying and coercion” that would violate Second Amendment rights and punish law-abiding citizens.

President Donald Trump congratulated Florida on the legislation, saying state lawmakers “passed a lot of very good legislation last night.”

During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, President Trump said the White House was working on a plan to ban bump stocks and that efforts to enhance background checks were “moving along well” in Congress.

The Florida bill’s narrow passage reflected a mix of Republicans and Democrats in support and opposition. Survivors were split as well.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was among those killed, said more needed to be done, but there was enough good in the bill that it should pass.

“My precious daughter Meadow’s life was taken, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. But make no mistake: I’m a father, and I’m on a mission. I’m on a mission to make sure I’m the last dad to ever read a statement of this kind.”

The Tampa Bay Times reported that officials in the state’s largest school districts, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties, have balked at the idea of arming employees and instead called for funding to support putting more police officers in schools.

Florida’s teachers union asked Scott to veto $67 million set aside for the guardian program. Under Florida law, Scott can sign the bill but use his line-item veto power to eliminate the funding.

“If guns are the appropriate answer, then we owe it to our children to provide appropriate numbers of professional, trained law enforcement personnel … whose work assignment is to protect students and staff,” Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall said in a statement.

Teachers in some states, including Texas, can carry concealed weapons if they have required training. At least eight states allow, or do not specifically prohibit, concealed weapons in K-12 schools, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Meanwhile, one student injured in the shooting was transferred to intensive care after his condition worsened. A hospital spokeswoman said 15-year-old Anthony Borges’ condition became critical overnight.

A family attorney did not immediately respond to a request for information. The student has filed notice that he will sue Florida authorities to seek money to cover the cost of his recovery.

The suspect in the attack, Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, faces 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the massacre.

His public defender has said he will plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table and sentence him to life in prison instead. Prosecutors have 45 days to decide.</s>Florida lawmakers have given final passage to a gun-safety package that raises the legal age for buying rifles and imposes a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales, while also allowing the arming of some public school personnel.

The bill was spurred by the shooting rampage three weeks ago that left 17 students and staff dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and led to an extraordinary lobbying campaign by young survivors of the massacre.

But the legislation, while containing a number of provisions student activists and their parents had embraced, left out one of their chief demands - a ban on assault-style weapons like the one used in the February 14 massacre.

Supporters have defended the bill saying most school shootings are committed with handguns.

The bill also overcame strenuous objections to provisions permitting school staff to carry guns on the job, a measure critics see as posing a particular risk to minority students who they say as more likely to be shot in the heat of a disciplinary situation or if mistaken as an intruder.

Swift action in the Republican-controlled statehouse, where the National Rifle Association has long held sway, signalled a possible turning point in the national debate between gun control advocates and proponents of firearms rights enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

The measure narrowly cleared the state Senate on Monday and was sent to the desk of Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, on Wednesday's 67-50 vote in the Florida House of Representatives.

The bill automatically becomes law within 15 days unless the governor vetoes it.

A spokeswoman for Scott said on Tuesday he had not yet decided whether to support the bill.</s>(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File). FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2018 file photo, Nikolas Cruz, accused of murdering 17 people in the Florida high school shooting, appears in court for a status hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cruz...

(AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser). Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, right, D-Coral Springs, regains his composure during his debate of the school safety bill as Rep. Shevrin D. Jones, D-West Park, looks on just prior to the vote at the Florida Capital in Tallaha...

(Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times via AP). Rep. Jose Oliva, R- Miami Lakes, is hugged and congratulated by House members as the gun and school safety bill passed the Florida House 67-50 in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday, March 7, 2018. Oliva shepherd the bil...

(Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times via AP). Rep. Jose Oliva, R- Miami Lakes, front, and other members of the Florida House, applaud Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School parent Andrew Pollack, who's daughter, Meadow Pollack, was killed in the school shooting...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Three weeks after the Parkland high school shooting, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has a gun-control bill on his desk that challenges the National Rifle Association but falls short of what the Republican and survivors of the massacre demanded.

Now he must decide whether to sign it. Scott has not said what he will do, and he plans to take up the issue Friday with relatives of 17 people slain in the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

"I'm going to take the time and I'm going to read the bill and I'm going to talk to families," he said.

State lawmakers formally delivered the reform package Thursday. The governor has 15 days to sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.

The measure would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and extend a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns. It would also create a so-called guardian program enabling school employees and many teachers to carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and their school districts agree to participate.

Other provisions would create new mental health programs for schools and establish an anonymous tip line where students and others could report threats to schools. The bill would also ban bump stocks that allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire and seek to improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies.

Scott has received top marks from the NRA in the past for supporting gun-rights measures, but he broke with the lobbying group after last month's slayings, which reinvigorated the gun-control movement.

The governor, who is expected to seek a U.S. Senate seat later this year, has called for raising the minimum age to purchase any type of gun, but he does not support arming teachers. Instead, he wanted lawmakers to adopt his own $500 million proposal to put at least one law enforcement officer in every school.

The NRA opposes raising age limits to buy weapons or imposing new waiting periods. In a statement Thursday, NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer called the bill "a display of bullying and coercion" that would violate Second Amendment rights and punish law-abiding citizens.

President Donald Trump congratulated Florida on the legislation, saying state lawmakers "passed a lot of very good legislation last night."

During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump said the White House was working on a plan to ban bump stocks and that efforts to enhance background checks were "moving along well" in Congress.

The Florida bill's narrow passage reflected a mix of Republicans and Democrats in support and opposition. Survivors were split as well.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was among those killed, said more needed to be done, but there was enough good in the bill that it should pass.

"My precious daughter Meadow's life was taken, and there's nothing I can do to change that. But make no mistake: I'm a father, and I'm on a mission. I'm on a mission to make sure I'm the last dad to ever read a statement of this kind."

The Tampa Bay Times reported that officials in the state's largest school districts, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties, have balked at the idea of arming employees and instead called for funding to support putting more police officers in schools.

Florida's teachers union asked Scott to veto $67 million set aside for the guardian program. Under Florida law, Scott can sign the bill but use his line-item veto power to eliminate the funding.

"If guns are the appropriate answer, then we owe it to our children to provide appropriate numbers of professional, trained law enforcement personnel ... whose work assignment is to protect students and staff," Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall said in a statement.

Teachers in some states, including Texas, can carry concealed weapons if they have required training. At least eight states allow, or do not specifically prohibit, concealed weapons in K-12 schools, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Meanwhile, one student injured in the shooting was transferred to intensive care after his condition worsened. A hospital spokeswoman said 15-year-old Anthony Borges' condition became critical overnight.

A family attorney did not immediately respond to a request for information. The student has filed notice that he will sue Florida authorities to seek money to cover the cost of his recovery.

The suspect in the attack, Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, faces 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the massacre.

Cruz's public defender has said he will plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table and sentence him to life in prison instead. Prosecutors have not announced a decision.

An attorney for the family that took in Cruz after his mother died said the gunman exchanged text messages with their son moments before opening fire.

Cruz asked the son of James and Kimberly Snead which classroom he was in and who his teacher was. The son was not wounded, lawyer Jim Lewis said Thursday.

Associated Press writers Jennifer Kay and Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami contributed to this report.

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — After the Florida House narrowly passed a school safety bill with new restrictions on rifle sales and a program to arm some teachers, all eyes now turn to Gov. Rick Scott, who has declined to say if he will sign it.

“I’m going to take the time and I’m going to read the bill and I’m going to talk to families,” Scott told reporters Wednesday.

Scott has repeatedly said he doesn’t support arming teachers and had pushed lawmakers adopt his own proposal, which called for at least one law enforcement officer in every school and one for every thousand students who attend a school.

The 67-50 House vote reflected a mix of Republicans and Democrats in support and opposition. The measure, a response to the shootings at a Parkland high school that left 17 dead, is supported by the victims’ families.

Andrew Pollack, who lost his 18-year-old daughter Meadow in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and Ryan Petty, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Alaina, said there was enough good in the bill that it should pass.

“More needs to be done, and it’s important for the country to be united in the same way the 17 families united in support of this bill,” Pollack said after the vote. “My precious daughter Meadow’s life was taken, and there’s nothing I can do to change that, but make no mistake, I’m a father and I’m on a mission. I’m on a mission to make sure I’m the last dad to ever read a statement of this kind.”

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a former Parkland city commissioner, ended the eight hours of debate with an emotional account of seeing the high school after the shooting, attending victims’ funerals and working with students and families while the House was forming the legislation. He broke down in tears after talking about how his 4-year-old son’s writing teacher lost her daughter in the attack.

“You don’t need to stand with me. I don’t need you to stand with me. I need you to stand with the families,” Moskowitz said.

Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs said she did not like the idea of arming teachers, but she voted yes. Republican Rep. Jay Fant said raising the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 was unconstitutional, and he voted no.

“There is a cultural divide in this room, in this state and across the country. And there’s a bill before us that is not perfect,” said Jacobs, whose district includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The bill would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and create a waiting period on sales of the weapons. It would also create a so-called guardian program that would let school employees and many teachers carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and if the school district decides to participate in the program.

Other provisions would create new mental health programs for schools; establish an anonymous tip line where students and others could report threats to schools, ban bump stocks and improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies.

Fant, who is running for attorney general, said the gun restrictions violate the constitution.

“I just can’t imagine that Nikolas Cruz can commit such a heinous crime and then as a result we tell, potentially, a 20-year-old single mother living alone that she cannot purchase a firearm to defend herself,” Fant said.

Shooting suspect Cruz was formally charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder Wednesday, which could mean a death sentence if he is convicted.

The indictment returned by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale also charges the 19-year-old with 17 counts of attempted murder for the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 people died and more than a dozen others were wounded.

Cruz’s public defender has said he will plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table, which would mean a life prison sentence. Prosecutors have 45 days to decide whether they want to seek the death penalty.

James and Kimberly Snead, the couple who gave Cruz a home after his mother died late last year, testified before the grand jury. James Snead and the couple’s attorney, Jim Lewis, wore silver “17” pins to honor the victims of the shooting.

“We’ll let justice take its course at this point,” Lewis said. “They still don’t know what happened, why this happened. They don’t have any answers. They feel very badly for everybody.”

Anderson reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Replogle reported from Parkland, Florida. Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro, David Fischer and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting</s>Florida lawmakers are poised to vote as early as today on a gun-school safety bill that was spurred by the Valentine's Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that left 17 people dead.

The bill includes a controversial measure to arm some teachers and other school personnel who undergo special training sanctioned by the state. The provision would allow school districts that don't want to participate to opt out of the program.

Under the Senate version of the bill, any teacher who does nothing but work in a classroom would not be eligible for the program, but teachers who perform other duties, such as serving as a coach, and other school employees could participate. Other exceptions would be made for teachers with law enforcement or military backgrounds, and teachers in a Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps program.

The bill would name the program for Aaron Feis, the assistant football coach who was killed at Stoneman Douglas and has been hailed as a hero for shielding students during the school attack.

The proposed legislation was narrowly approved by the state Senate on Monday with vote of 20-18, and the House held seven hours of debate on it Tuesday, striking down amendments to strip the bill of any measures to block school staff from carrying guns to work.

President Donald Trump has publicly supported arming teachers who are properly trained as a way of hardening schools against gun violence.

If the House approves the bill, it would become law in 15 days unless Gov. Rick Scott signs it into law sooner or vetoes the legislation.

Before it went to the House, the proposed bill also would:

-- Raise the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.



-- Include $400 million for school security, including hiring more school resource officers, and mental health programs.



-- Create a 16-member commission to investigate the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and make recommendations to the state Legislature.



An earlier proposal to ban the sale of assault weapons like the AR-15-style rifle used in the school massacre was voted down by the Florida lawmakers even as students who survived the shooting sat in the State Capitol gallery.

The National Rifle Association has opposed the most of the proposed legislation, with the exception of arming teachers in schools.
Florida's House of Representatives votes 67–50 to approve a gun and school safety bill that would raise the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, sending the bill to Governor Rick Scott to sign into law. The measure also prohibits bump stocks, and creates a program for the arming of some teachers.