A hotly debated bill that would let school leaders designate certain employees to carry concealed weapons on campus is coming back for a do-over in 2015.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton, filed HB 19 last week, carbon copy of a bill that failed in 2014 -- though not in the House, where it passed 71-44 after a passionate speech by Steube ("Let's give ourselves the constitutional and God-given rights to defend ourselves."). It failed inthe more moderate Florida Senate.
Steube has said the bill is near and dear to his heart, that he spent many weeks crafting it in the first place to get it right. He still believes it's important, still believes it should be law in Florida.
The new bill would still work like this: A school superintendent, if the local school board consented, could authorize a "school safety designee" to carry a concealed weapon on school property.
"School safety designee" is a key component of the bill. It needn't be a teacher. It could be an honorably discharged military veteran, an active-duty member of the military, National Guard or reserves, or an active-duty former law-enforcement officer.
Rep. Ronald Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, a keen supporter of the 2014 measure (HB 753/SB 968), said he likes the idea of involving service veterans. He believes the bill presents a logical solution to a genuine problem.
"We cannot afford to have resource officers in every school full-time," Renuart said last spring. "Yet, we have very willing veterans who have been well-trained, who can help us in this situation."
Requiring every school hire a full-time school resource officer would amount to a crushing unfunded mandate, bill supporters have said. HB 19 can help give superintendents and principals an option.
The designee would have to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon, complete a school-safety program and pass a background screening.
This is the third attempt to get the bill through the Legislature.
In 2013 when Steube first offered the bill (HB 1097/SB1418), it was a response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in late 2012. He wanted to allow principals in Florida to select one or more teachers who would be allowed to carry guns at school -- after obtaining a concealed weapons permit and undergoing extensive firearms training.
In that earliest version, more emphasis was placed on allowing -- even encouraging -- teachers to carry guns. Teachers, parents and administrators -- even those on the state level -- all balked loudly in long public hearings. Newspapers editorialized against it.
Steube said the bill also was motivated by the inconsistency of school resource officers from campus to campus in Florida. It would remedy that, he said, requiring every public school -- elementary, middle, junior high or secondary -- either to have a resource officer or employee designated to carry a concealed weapon.
Right now somebody can stroll onto any of the school grounds and know there is no one there who is armed, especially if they dont have a school resource officer. In the Columbine incident, those individuals waited for the school resource officer to go to lunch before they went on the campus, Steube said.
Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, was a key supporter. Baxley said previous laws that made schools "gun-free zones" were well-intended but inadvertently left schools defenseless, if a "monster" got on campus.
The National Rifle Association has been supportive right along. "The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," longtime NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer has said.
Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, said she voted against the bill in April, "but it was one of my most difficult votes." It did strike a nerve for her, she said, and she spoke on it in debate.
"I appreciated the need for local school boards to have the final say to determine who could be designated as armed, especially in rural counties," she told Sunshine State News on Monday. "But I would have liked to have seen attention and focus on 'arming' schools with more mental health counselors to identify at-risk youth who are silently suffering through trauma, bullying, illness, abuse and so forth -- the untreated issues that are at the root causes of such tragedies."
HB 19 says the Legislature would not mandate that schools have designees but that it is the intent of the Legislature to prevent violent crimes from occurring on school grounds. The Legislature acknowledges that the safekeeping of our students, teachers and campuses is imperative.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
