Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a school safety and gun access bill that was crafted in response to last month's Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the legislation raises the minimum age from 18 to 21 and require a three-day waiting period for people buying rifles and other long guns, requirements that already apply to buying handguns. The measure also bans the sale of “bump stocks,” which allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic fully automatic weapons.
Parents and students from Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., were instrumental in the passage of Florida’s first gun restrictions in nearly two decades, says Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who graduated from Douglas High and served on the Parkland city commission.
“There’s no question that they were the difference makers,” Moskowitz says.
The new gun restrictions have infuriated the National Rifle Association, which typically opposes restrictions on acquiring firearms.
The Florida Education Association urged Scott to veto the bill because of provisions that could lead to more than 200,000 school employees qualifying to carry firearms, which would it says would “do more harm than good.”
