Latest news with #SB814
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FSU students come to Capitol with asks following campus shooting
Simon Monteleone, a student at Florida State and intern for Rep. Mitch Rosenwald, speaks n April 22. 2025, during a news conference with Rep. Fentrice Driskell and other FSU students who were on campus during the April 17, 2025, campus shooting. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) Florida State University students, joined by House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, are calling for policy change following a campus shooting within walking distance of the chambers where laws are made. A group of students gathered at the Capitol Tuesday only days after they barricaded themselves in classrooms Thursday when a shooter opened fire on campus, killing two and wounding six. 'As a leader, I carry the weight of this moment and turn it into purpose. We owe it to the victims, not just here at Florida State University, but across Florida and across our nation to make sure that this doesn't happen again,' said Andres Perez, president of the FSU chapter of Students Demand Action. The suspected gunman, step-son of a Leon County sheriff's deputy, according to law enforcement, used her retired service weapon. Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said it was not surprising 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner would have access to weapons. He was involved with LCSO, including training with the department and sitting on a youth board advising the sheriff. Madalyn Propst, president of FSU College Democrats, called on FSU to put locks on classroom doors, train professors to respond to shootings, and increase financial support for mental health intervention and advocacy. She said the shooting 'was both senseless and preventable.' 'Although it is not a political issue when a mass tragedy happens, it becomes political when it is enabled by poor policy,' Propst said in the Captiol rotunda. 'Because of a lack of proactive planning and poor policy on the hands of our legislators, there are two people who are dead who shouldn't be, six people in the hospital who shouldn't be, thousands of students who no longer feel safe on campus, and a community that is still reeling from a senseless act of violence, and no amount of thoughts and prayers is going to fix that.' Propst called on Congress to reinstate the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and on the Legislature to expand safe storage laws to apply to any house that someone who cannot legally handle a gun lives in. 'Shooting after shooting, we're told to wait, and all we hear are 'thoughts and prayers.' And I'm sensitive to not politicizing an issue but, year after year, we file good, common sense bills to help make our community safer and, unfortunately, they don't even get a committee hearing,' Driskell said. A Senate bill, SB 814, allowing students to carry guns on Florida campuses, lost steam earlier this session, and eyes are on the same chamber to see if it will pick up the House-approved bill, HB 759, to lower the age to buy long guns to 18. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'I'm disgusted with my Legislature and the people that I know some of my friends and my family voted for,' Propst said. 'The fact that they are able to sit in this place and prioritize weapons over my life, my friends' lives, and the lives of my community around me is deplorable.' The House bill would reverse in part a 2018 package addressing school safety passed just weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. A response as quick as happened in 2018 does not seem so certain this year. 'I think the only difference [between 2018 and now] is that it seems like the governor is desensitized to this. I mean, we saw the comments from President Trump, that, to me, was such a slap in the face to these students and to everyone in this community who's been impacted by this gun violence,' Driskell. Gov. Ron DeSantis released a video to X the day of the shooting and ordered flags flown at half-staff. President Donald Trump said, 'I will always protect the Second Amendment,' and, 'These things are terrible. But the gun doesn't do the shooting, the people do,' CBS News reported. According to FSU, following the shooting it offered mental health assistance to more than 1,300 students Thursday through Sunday, including 604 on the day of the shooting and 520 on Sunday. The university continues to provide services through this week. The school canceled classes on Friday and resumed classes Monday with optional attendance. The semester ends May 2. Rep. Christine Hunchofsky, mayor of Parkland during the 2018 shooting, reflected on the FSU shooting during a media availability Monday. 'If you haven't been through something like this, it's very hard to understand the level of trauma that people who have been through this are experiencing and, if that doesn't get addressed early enough, it's something that can become debilitating in the long term. And so, it's so important to make sure that everyone has what they need,' Hunchofsky said. Minutes after the shooting on Thursday, Hunchofsky presented HB 1403 to the House Education and Employment Committee, a bill that would address school safety measures. It passed unanimously. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ileana Garcia has ‘zero regret' on voting down campus-carry bill
Gun wall rack with rifles. Credit: Getty Images In 2018, the Florida Legislature reacted to the mass shooting in Parkland by passing major safety regulations. Chances for a such a response to Thursday's shootings at Florida State University are slim. That doesn't mean legislators are ignoring the politics of guns. Start with Miami Republican state Sen. Illeana Garcia, who joined with three Senate Democrats in a committee vote last month rejecting a proposal sponsored by then-GOP Sen. Randy Fine (SB 814) to allow concealed weapons on college and university campuses. 'I have zero regret,' Garcia said on X late Thursday night about that vote, in which she joined with Democratic Sens. Jason Pizzo, Mack Bernard, and Carlos Guillermo Smith in opposing the proposal. Two other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were absent for the vote. 'Proud to have voted against your moronic campus carry bill, that didn't have a house companion,' Garcia said, referring to Fine. 'This decision wasn't about partisan politics; it was rooted in common sense. The incident at FSU was tragic, but the real issue lies not with the firearm itself, but with the factors that led to it. The individual involved was the child of a deputy sheriff and had knowledge of weapon handling, yet chose to act recklessly.' Fine noted the vote in a posting on X on Friday, where he included an excerpt of his speech in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 25. 'There is no magic force field that keeps guns from coming onto our college campuses,' he said. 'Less than one month ago, in my last bill presentation as a Florida Senator, I attempted to give adults the same right to protect themselves on campus as they have off. My four-minute closing speech is below. For the first and only time in 8.5 years in the Legislature, I failed. By a vote of 3-4, with two absent, the committee voted to keep universities 'gun-free zones.' An offensive name given what happened yesterday. The no vote included all three Democrats plus one so-called Republican. I am incredibly grateful to the law enforcement who ran into the gunfire yesterday to subdue the gunman. But in the time that took, this murderer was able to shoot seven people, two of whom have died. Today, I wonder if one of those seven had been able to defend themselves, the outcome would have been different. In any event, I will continue praying for all.' Following the Parkland school shooting in February of 2018, within weeks the Florida Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott came together to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public High School Safety Act, a comprehensive measure that included numerous provisions regarding firearms and school safety, plus community mental health resources. There have been attempts over the past three legislative sessions to repeal a provision of that law that bans individuals under 21 years of age from purchasing rifles and shotguns, and prohibiting licensed firearm dealers, importers, and manufacturers, from selling them to people of that age. Those measures have passed the House in 2023, 2024, and this year. In the past two years, the Senate did not pass a companion measure, and a similar measure has yet to advance in the 2025 legislative session. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Randy Fine files legislation to allow college students to carry guns on campus
The entrance to the Florida State University campus from College Ave. and Copeland St. on Dec. 31, 2024. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) Brevard County Republican state Sen. Randy Fine has filed legislation (SB 814) that would extend concealed carry rights to Florida colleges and universities. The state lawmaker — now running for a seat in Congress — has said over the past year that such legislation is necessary to protect students from 'on-campus Muslim terror.' The bill language says that a person 'may carry a firearm on the property of any college or university, including, but not limited to, any dormitory or residence hall owned or operated by a college or university, and in any other location he or she is legally authorized to do so.' The measure also says that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) may authorize a college or university, while hosting or sponsoring a sporting event, to designate a campus facility or area as a sensitive location in which possession of a concealed weapon is prohibited. To receive such authorization, the school must submit a security plan to the FDLE for approval. Fine says that he determined to file the bill after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, in light of the 'many universities around the country refusing to protect their students from on-campus Muslim terror.' 'The Second Amendment does not take the semester off when you step on a college campus,' Fine said in a statement. 'Adults should have the right to protect themselves on campus, particularly after so many universities across America chose to protect Muslim terror advocates over their own students. There is no magic force field that keeps criminals from carrying a gun onto campus; this bill will ensure that students have the same rights on campus as they do off.' Similar legislation has been filed nearly every year by Florida Republicans over the past decade without success. Twelve states do not force colleges and universities to allow concealed guns on campus, according to Everytown Research & Policy, a gun-safety group. Due to laws such as Stand Your Ground, Florida has gained the reputation as being extremely gun-friendly, sometimes labeled 'the Gunshine State.' But, in fact, the state does enforce more regulations on firearms than in many parts of the nation. Take open carry: Florida is one of five states that do not allow the open carrying of guns, although that may change in this coming session. During his skirmish with GOP lawmakers over an illegal immigration bill, both Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis indicated support for open carry, with the governor saying it would 'be great to see it hit my desk.' The leadership in the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature has resisted proposals in recent years to repeal parts of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act such as lowering the age to carry a firearm in Florida from 21 to 18 — Sen. Fine has filed legislation (SB 94) that would do that during the 2025 legislative session. Fine is running in Florida's 6th Congressional District in a special election slated for April 1 against Democrat Josh Weil and three non-party affiliated or third-party candidates. The district leans conservative, and Fine has been endorsed by Donald Trump for the seat. He has already submitted his resignation from the Florida Senate effective March 31. The district includes Palm Coast, stretches to just east of Gainesville, and includes portions of The Villages. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
