A bill expanding Florida's School Guardian Program to include public colleges and universities in addition to the K-12 schools where armed school staff and volunteers are already in place sailed through the state House on Wednesday, but the bill might not even receive a hearing in the state Senate.
HB 757 is not a campus carry bill. If enacted, students would still be barred from lawfully carrying a firearm on campuses, and staff members would have be appointed by the president of the college or university where they work. The bill easily cleared the House on a 83-25 vote on Wednesday, and the bill is now pending in the Senate Rules Committee.
The votes in opposition were all from Democrats.
“I just think it’s very important that we let the people who are teaching, teach. Let them fully focus on teaching, not get distracted from that. And if we actually care about security, we’re going to hire people who their only job is security,” Democratic Pro Tempore Christine Hunschofsky said in introducing an ultimately failed amendment to exclude professors from carrying guns. Hunschofsky was mayor of Parkland at the time of the 2018 shooting.
The bill requires universities to conduct threat assessments and create threat management teams. It directs training for faculty to identify and respond to behavioral mental health warning signs and to enhance communication about dual-enrolled students’ discipline records between K-12 schools and colleges.
That amendment would have negated the entire purpose of the bill, which I have to say is already much weaker than what I'd prefer. If university presidents are the ones who'll decide if their institution will participate in the Guardian program, my guess is that the vast majority of those individuals are going to opt out.
That provision might water down the bill enough that Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, the head of the Senate Rules committee, will allow it to be heard. Passidomo has repeatedly refused to hold hearings on House bills that would repeal the prohibition on firearm sales to adults younger than 21 and allow for open carry in the state (which is now in place thanks to a judicial decision), and I wouldn't be surprised if even this relatively milquetoast proposal goes too far for her liking.
She might not get a say, however. The Senate version of this bill (SB 896) was routed through the Criminal Justice and Appropriations committees instead of Passidomo's fiefdom, and Appropriations approved the legislation on Tuesday, sending the bill to the Senate floor.
“I fundamentally don’t believe that adding more guns to the equation on college campuses is what will make us safer,” Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, said before voting against the bill in committee.
“Today, this bill is not about allowing students to be guardians, but next session we probably will be dealing with a bill that makes students eligible to be guardians,” Smith said, adding that the bill could signal a move toward “a full-out campus carry.”
I sure hope so. The "gun-free" status of colleges and universities in the state hasn't stopped a number of on-campus shootings, but it has prevented lawful gun owners from being able to carry for self-defense. Students and professors shouldn't even have to go through the Guardian program's 144 hours of training to exercise their Second Amendment rights on campus, in my opinion. The Second Amendment should be the only permission slip they need to bear arms in self-defense in that setting.
Unfortunately that's not an option this year. So, while HB 757/SB 896 don't go nearly far enough, they are at least a step in the right direction and the Senate should follow the House's lead in approving the measure... while Florida gun owners continue to push for a true campus carry bill to be introduced next session.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment.
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