Watching the Florida legislature make statutory sausage has been an exercise in frustration for Second Amendment advocates in recent years as Senate leadership has stymied attempts to repeal bans on gun sales to adults under the age of 21, the state's "red flag" law, and pro-2A bills allowing for open carry and lawful carry on college and university campuses.
Florida is now an open carry state thanks to the courts, not lawmakers, but the legislature did take a small step towards campus carry legislation this week when the Senate signed off on HB 757, which will bring Florida's "Guardian" program to higher ed campuses in addition to the K-12 schools where it's already in place.
“It’s entirely optional,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, during the Committee process. “And so if they want to join 53 School Districts who have reported no problems and are very highly satisfied with the guardian program, they can. If they don’t want to, they don’t have to.”
Under the bill, the local Sheriff’s Office would train guardians.
But Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, said he was philosophically against the Republicans’ strategy to increase security with the guardians program.
“I fundamentally don’t believe that adding more guns to the equation, particularly in the hands of civilians, is something that will help us,” Smith said. “I worry that bills like this are the camel’s nose underneath the tent to bring us a full campus carry.”
I sure hope so, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not even convinced that many colleges or universities in the state will choose to participate in the program, which would allow staff to carry a concealed firearm after they've been vetted and have undergone at least 144 hours of traiining. In addition, the School Guardian program does not allow classroom teachers to participate. While that may not be much of a hinderance to responding to a threat on campus in many K-12 schools, college and university campuses are a much different story. An armed admissions officer who works out of the Student Union may not arrive at the scene of an active shooting any faster than law enforcement if they're having to race across campus to where shots are being fired.
So yes, let's hope this does lead to true campus carry, because that would be far more beneficial to public safety than allowing only a select number of higher ed employees to carry while on the job, and only if their employer chooses to allow them to do so.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously called for expanding the Guardian program to Florida colleges and universities, so he'll almost certainly sign HB 757 into law. When he does so, I hope he'll also say a few words about this being a good first step before throwing his weight behind a campus carry bill. This is DeSantis's last year in office, so he won't be around to shepherd legislation through the statehouse next year, but he could at least lay down a marker for the next governor to follow... assuming, that is, that an anti-gun Democrat doesn't win in November.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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