The Florida House of Representatives today approved a law that seeks to restrict the purchase of weapons after the February 14 killings of Parkland, which killed 17 people, and leaves it to the governor, Rick Scott, for his signature.
The initiative increases the age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21 years, seeks to increase safety in schools and allocates 400 million dollars to implement the new provisions.
The approval of the project, the first gun control to reach a governor of Florida in the last 22 years, occurs three weeks after the Parkland shooting.
After the approval of the measure in both chambers, of republican majority, the governor Scott will have the last word, but until now it has not pronounced on his signature or veto.
“When a bill comes to my desk, I’ll do what they do not seem to be doing in Washington, I’m going to review it line by line,” he said.
The Republican, however, has anticipated that he will consult with the families of Parkland.
Both cameras approved the measure after listening to the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting, as well as the families of the victims, in what has been considered a challenge to the influential National Rifle Association (NRA).
Students who survived the school killings in Parkland and who created the NeverAgain movement on February 21 claimed new gun control laws on the Florida Capitol.
The Parkland was the third mass shooting in Florida since June 2016, when the massacre of 49 people occurred at the Pulse club in Orlando, in addition to 5 people killed in the attack at the Fort Lauderdale airport in January 2017.
The project, which was approved last Monday in the Senate, also creates a program to arm some teachers and classroom staff and establishes a three-day waiting period and background checks for the sale of weapons.
On February 27, Governor Scott announced a $ 500 million investment to increase safety in schools, and disagreed with the idea of ​​arming teachers proposed by US President Donald Trump in response to the Parkland kill.
The plan designed by Scott also establishes that, instead of training teachers, one police officer is available in each school for every thousand students.
The Democrats had battled for a moratorium on the sale of AR-15 rifles, the weapon used by former student Nikolas Cruz in the shootout he unleashed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, southeastern Florida. (efeusa)
