Well, that didn’t take long, did it?
On the eve of the inauguration last week, Florida State Rep. Mike Hill (R-Pensacola) filed a bill Monday that would roll back the gun restrictions passed by last year’s state legislature in the wake of the student shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.
“The law that was passed last year was a direct infringement upon our Second Amendment, so I was duty bound by my oath to file this legislation to protect and defend our Second Amendment rights,” Hill said, referring to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which, among other things, banned bump stocks, raised the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 years old, extended the waiting period to buy a gun to three days and created the “red-flag” provision that allows law enforcement to temporarily confiscate guns from anyone who threatens to hurt themselves or anyone else.
Hill’s bill would repeal those restrictions, which he said would do “absolutely nothing to stop what it intended to and that was mass shootings at our schools.”
The legislation, and a companion bill to be filed by Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala), first have to go through committee before getting to the House and Senate floors.
So this means that we could see a repeat of last year’s emotional testimony and fierce advocacy on both sides of the issue as the NRA again focuses on Florida.
Already, newly-elected Democratic State Rep. Cindy Polo — a Miami Lakes mom who decided to run after the shooting — vowed to fight the bill every step of the way.
“After one of the most devastating mass shootings in our state’s history, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together to pass a new set of gun safety laws. This legislation was not perfect, but it was a start,” Polo said in a statement.
“We must continue to move forward with bipartisan consensus on these issues and not backwards. This NRA-sponsored legislation is not the way to honor all of those we lost almost a year ago.
“We have a responsibility to the Parkland families and to all communities in Florida. It’s time our loyalty be with the people and not the NRA. I encourage all of my colleagues to do the same.”
Ladra can’t help but wonder how the survivors and the family of the victims feel about this.
Hill’s loyalties seem to be warped and he’s headed to a pretty big year, ensuring headlines. The other bills he’s introducing pre-session include one to ban the removal of confederate symbols — street names, statutes, whatever — which is already in committee and a controversial “fetal heartbeat” anti-abortion bill, which has been tried state by state to make Roe Vs. Wade moot.
And we haven’t even really gotten started.
 

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The Coral Gables City Commission is poised to approve a mostly symbolic ban on the sale of assault weapons — there are no gun stores in the City Beautiful — even though state law prohibits cities from enacting gun restrictions and they could be removed from office.
Let’s keep our trigger fingers crossed.
Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli sponsored the measure, which is on the agenda as a first reading, in the wake of the Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last month, where 14 students and three educators were gunned down by a 19-year-old with an AR-15. On Feb. 27, almost two weeks to the day, Valdes-Fauli led the commission in a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Vince Lago had left early, wink wink) to instruct a very unwilling city attorney to write the ordinance with the ban and bring it back to them.
This is pretty much campaign theater for a mayor who has already decided he wants another term next year. Valdes-Fauli has gotten quite a bit of ink and air time from this gimmick, so of course he’s going to ignore City Attorney Miriam Ramos’ warnings about this being an invalid act and the potential consequences — fines of up to $5,000 and removal from office.
Valdes-Fauli told any reporter who gave him a minute that he would gladly pay the price. “If that helps prevent the death of one of Coral Gables’ children, I would happily pay it,” he was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald.
Except it won’t save anyone’s life. Because, as we said in the first sentence, there is no gun store in Coral Gables. So, even if the law passed and remained valid, someone could buy an AR-15 in Coconut Grove and bring it to Miracle Mile. And, also, if he is removed from office it will likely be because the ordinance is illegal. So he’s done nothing.
Jack Thompson, a Gables resident and City Hall pain in the trolley, says that the mayor and his cohorts who vote yes on this must be removed from office by the governor. That it’s not a matter of maybe. That it’s not a choice.
“Should this renegade Coral Gables Commission actually pass its ordinance Tuesday, which calls for violating state law, please proceed with summarily removing all those voting to do so from their offices,” Thompson wrote over the weekend in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott. “The statute in question MANDATES their removal. It does not give you, Governor Scott, the option not to remove them, as the operative word in the removal statute is ‘shall,’ the most powerful command verb in the English language.”
Oh, please let him be right. Everybody but Lago, who has apparently told people he will vote against the ordinance Tuesday, is a waste of space up there anyway. Let’s clean house. Voters need a do over, too.
That’s not to say that Ladra isn’t for a statewide ban on assault weapons. But the way to do it is a binding referendum question on the ballot, which some people are trying to get for the 2020 election. Ladra would like to see it on this year’s ballot, while the momentum is there. This is what the city of Coral Gables should be doing. Pressuring their legislators in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. to pass a wider ban. Because what good is a ban in Coral Gables if some nut can cross the street and get an AR-15 in West Miami or Coconut Grove.
That is the weapon that Nikolas Cruz used to kill 17 people on Feb. 14. It was purchased in a Coral Springs strip mall. Yet, you don’t see Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell, whose community is right next to Parkland, moving to pass an illegal ban that would mean nada. Instead, he wants to collect petitions to put it on the 2020 ballot and let voters do what our Republican legislators won’t.
Because the desire to ban these weapons of war and high-capacity magazines is very real. A Quinnipiac University poll done the week after the Broward school shooting, 67% of the respondents said they were in favor of a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons.
But what Valdes-Fauli and his yes people are doing is not so real. It’s theater. It’s a PR stunt to make them look good because gun control suddenly became the hip new thing for politicians to embrace as the teenagers becoming 18-year-old voters demand it.
And it could even be illegal.
“Coral Gables‘ City Attorney Miriam Ramos has publicly and rightly informed the Commission that she will not certify as legal its vote to violate this law,” Thompson wrote in his letter to the guv. “She is a lawyer who takes seriously both her oath upon becoming  lawyer to obey and support the law and her oath of office as City Attorney. If this ordinance is passed, she will not sign off on it.”
Indeed, “the city attorney’s opinion regarding the ordinance remains unchanged,” says the memo in tomorrow’s agenda package.
“You have to love a client who pays its lawyer, with tax dollars, to give legal advice which it chooses to ignore,” wrote Thompson. “Sounds like we have a local manifestation of Trump.”
You know who else are lawyers? Valdes-Fauli and Commissioner Mike Mena. One would think they would know better.
“The Florida Bar has remedies for such brazen oath-breaking,” Thompson wrote, and Ladra has no doubt he is seeking their disbarment.
 

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While our electeds in Tallahassee mess up a perfectly starter gun control bill with their crazy school militia program and GOP House members repeatedly oppose amendments to close the gun show loophole, Democrat candidates in this year’s state elections are taking it straight to the source — urging the Miami-Dade Youth Fair and Expo to cancel two upcoming gun shows in May and July.
And the city commission in South Miami on Tuesday night unanimously passed a measure, sponsored by Commissioner Josh Liebman, demanding local governments prohibit gun shows on public property, which the fairgrounds is on.
Mayor Philip Stoddard told Ladra after the vote that the city would send the resolution to the Miami-Dade Fairgrounds “since the county contract with them ceded control of the events.”
Related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
In a Feb. 23 letter to the board members and executives of the Miami-Dade Youth and Exposition — the hosts of a gun show the very weekend after the Parkland tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High —  five Democrat state House candidates and a state senate candidate pressed board members to cancel two upcoming gun shows in coming months.
“The tragic events of February 14th resulting in the death of 17 students and teachers in neighboring Broward County have shaken our community. Here in Miami-Dade, a gun show took place at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition grounds (the “Fairgrounds”) the following weekend.
Gun shows are well-known as places where people can buy a weapon of any caliber from private sellers, who are neither federally licensed, nor do they run background checks on buyers. The sale of such weapons without required screening is notoriously referred to as ‘gun show loophole’.
According to a 2017 study, 22 percent of gun owners obtained their weapons without submitting to a background check. That equates to millions of guns sold to individuals who could have a violent past or be mentally ill. Many of these purchases likely occurred at gun shows, easily accessible marketplaces for people who don’t want to be subject to a background check to find non-licensed gun dealers.
The Fairgrounds are presently scheduled to host two other gun shows in May and July. The undersigned write to you to request that your organization follow of communities like Broward County by agreeing to cancel future gun shows in light of the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
While there are many issues of contention when it comes to gun reform, there is a growing consensus about requiring comprehensive background checks to keep weapons out of the hands of citizens that suffer from mental health issues or are known to be violent. Your organization is dedicated to enriching our community by promoting education – hosting gun shows is directly inapposite of this mission.
The cancellation of the scheduled shows and a future prohibition on such events at the Fairgrounds is but a small gesture, compared to the disgrace and insult to the victims of shootings and their families if they were allowed continue. If we know that just one individual can use such shows to bypass a background check in order to arm their ill intent against our children, we cannot in good conscience continue to host these gun shows at the Fairgrounds.
We call on you, the board members and executives of the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition, Inc., to do what is right by cancelling the scheduled gun shows and prohibiting all future gun shows on the Fairgrounds.”
The letter was signed “Respectfully,” by Javier Fernández, who is running in House District 114 in Coral Gables, Jason Pizzo, who is running for Senate in District 38, Cedric McMinn, running in House District 109 in Miami and Opa-Locka, Kubs Lalchandani, running in House District 113 in Miami Beach and Little Havana, Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, running in House District 115 in Pinecrest and Dotie Joseph, running in House District 108 in Miami and Miami Shores.
But only Fernández and Solomon are likely to face Republicans. The others are running in traditionally blue districts against Democrat incumbents or, in the case of Lalchandani, in an open seat vacated by a Democrat and against another Democrat, former Miami Beach Commissioner Deede Weithorn (more on that later).
Fernández is the first up with a special election May 1. And, yeah, this issue is going to hurt Andrew Vargas, who won the Republican primary last month. Vargas is law partners and the political protege of State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who ushered this school militia program quite quickly in the appropriations committee. This photograph, while a corporate pic, likely is a good characterization about their feelings with the progress that this crazy guns in schools law has made.
Related: GOP voters in House 114 slam dunk Jose Pazos and pick Andrew Vargas
Ladra was undecided on this race because, let’s face it, the Dems didn’t make the best choice, again. A lobbyist against an insurance industry attorney who is also Trujillo’s proxy? After they’ve slammed Republican lobbyists in previous campaigns? Ugh. But we need Democrats in Tallahassee next year to undo the damage and pass reasonable bans on weapons that were built and are meant for war. So, yeah, Javi, a little begrudgingly, Ladra is yours. At least in May. We’ll see in November. I still like Ross Hancock, who didn’t want to spent his energy on a special election where the Dems had already picked another guy.
But Fernández is right on this issue and right on time. On Tuesday, he went to South Miami City Hall to support Liebman’s item.
“It’s an issue that’s been missing from the state efforts to address gun reform,” Fernández told Ladra afterwards.
“There seems to be a consensus that everybody needs background screening,” he said, adding that 31 gun shows in the next 60 days were happening on state and county fairgrounds in Florida. “I just find it inconsistent with the directed mission of these organizations, which is to advance educational development.”
Fernández was a policy advisor to former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz who stopped the practice of hosting gun shows at the Coconut Grove Convention Center when he became involved in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization in 2009 — which, by the way, does not list Miami as a member today on its website (ahem, Mayor Francis Suarez).
Let’s hope Fernández is as good a lobbyist as everybody thinks he is when he speaks before the Fairgrounds board about this on Monday. That board includes Miami-Dade School Board Member Maria Teresa “Maritere” Rojas, who is also up for re-election, so let’s watch what she does and says very closely.
It does seem somewhat incongruous that the location for our annual and beloved Youth Fair, which is already being advertised this year, would also be the home of traveling firearm festivals. And while Ladra has not supported Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s efforts to usurp the Youth Fair lease for Florida International University’s expansion, it is taxpayer owned property.
Related: By putting guns in schools, Republicans send a clear message: Elect Democrats
The Youth Fair board would be wise to do the right thing if it wants the community’s support against Gimenez’s overtures, which can be resumed at any moment.
Gun shows across Florida are held on public land — at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Fort Myers or the Lee County Civic Center, for example. Future leases with these organizations that use public lands should state specifically that these properties cannot be used for gun shows.
At least not until we close the gun show loophole.
But, as we saw in Tallahassee on Tuesday, neither of those things are likely to happen until more Democrat candidates are elected.

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Republicans have shot themselves in the foot.
In just a few days, GOP legislators in Tallahassee. by forcing a program that puts guns in public schools, have done more for the Florida Democratic Party than anyone since Al Gore.
When the Florida Senate voted Monday 20-18 to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student Safety Act, which should have been a seamless and beautiful piece of legislation, they closed one of the most disgusting political deals Ladra has ever seen. Not only did they fail repeatedly to support even a partial ban or moratorium on the sale of assault weapons, the only thing that will really make us safer, the GOP majority basically held four badly needed measures — mental health funding, school infrastructure hardening, a ban on bump stocks and raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 — hostage to putting guns in schools.
You want those four things? Plus better background checks for all? And we’ll throw in a mechanism for law enforcement to take firearms away from people who may be a threat to themselves or others. You like that? Well, then, you gotta swallow guns in schools.
It’s extortion, at worst.  Disingenuous at best.
If our Republican legislators were sincere about making these changes, they would separate the items into independent bills. They would let the mental health funding and the hardening of schools stand on its own. The bump stocks ban and age limit could be paired in a separate bill. And the marshal program, cynically renamed the “Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program” after one of the victims — because that makes it prettier and sound safer, right? — would fly solo.
Related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
Instead we get a law named for the school where 17 were killed by one gunman with an AR 15 that puts more guns in schools.
Because these Republican lawmakers are not sincere. They have been trying to get guns in schools for years. This is not an organic, reactive response to the tragedy in Parkland on Feb. 14. This is a big break for them in a long and seemingly futile effort that has been shot down every year because it’s absolutely crazy. And it would not gain traction on its own this year either. They needed the political cover so that anyone voting against the guns in schools could be cast as voting against mental health funding.
¡Qué descarados!
And a few Dems fell for it. Most notably Sen. Lauren Book of Plantation, who choked up repeatedly, broke into tears and was handed tissue as she talked about touring MSD High the day after the massacre to justify her compromise vote.
“My community was rocked. School children were murdered in their classroom,” Book (photographed right) said. “I could not live with the choice to put party politics above an opportunity to get something done that inches us closer to the place I believe we should be as a state.”
But we were all rocked, Sen. Book, and it’s not about party politics. It’s about insane measures that do nothing to keep our kids and our communities safe.
Also voting with the bill Monday were the well-intentioned but misguided Democrat Sens. Kevin Rader of Delray Beach and Bill Montford of Tallahassee.
If just one of these three Dems had voted no, the bill would have failed and, Ladra is certain, a special session would have been scheduled to debate just how to respond to the school shooting in an appropriate way, at an appropriate pace. The busloads of students and teachers and parents would demand that they address it. The television cameras and pundits hammering on it 24/7 would pressure them to address it — the right way, without holding any part of the bill hostage.
Maybe they don’t want to have to go back to Tallahassee?
Sens. Bill Galvano and Rene Garcia hug and celebrate after they pass a bill to arm educators.
Now, the bill moves to the House where it is almost certain to pass. Then to Gov. Rick Scott, who has said he is against arming teachers and could exercise his veto power. But Ladra doubts he would veto the whole bill and piss off the powerful Sen. Bill Galvano, who sponsored the act, just as he is running for Senate. Especially now that our own Sen. Rene Garcia of Hialeah passed a feel-good amendment that makes it look like classroom teachers won’t have guns, giving Scott the political power to sign off on it.
Because Garcia’s last minute tweak doesn’t really keep the guns out of the hands of all teachers. Any teacher who is former military, or reserve law enforcement, or also a coach or has some auxiliary position like activities or athletic director may be able to participate in the gun-toting program. Up to 10 employees in each school — coaches, janitors, librarians, principals, APs, security monitors, counselors, support staff and lunch ladies — can still be armed on campus after passing background and psychological tests and 132 hours of training.
Which raises a question: If psychological tests are a good idea for teachers with guns, why aren’t they a good idea for everybody else?
Republican lawmakers were sure to repeat over and over again how this is voluntary. School districts and county police agencies have to opt in. But both of those bodies are impacted by political pressure. While Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent has strongly rejected the idea of guns in our schools, he is not going to be there forever. This opens the door to a slippery slope.
Students from MSD High who want an assault weapons ban and are opposed to guns in schools watch silently from the gallery above the Senate floor as our elected officials betray us.
And what matters also is the message that the Senate is sending. That despite the pleas of the public, the survivors and victims’ families from Parkland and school officials and the PTAs and parents and teachers across the state, despite a poll that shows that a majority of Floridians support an assault weapons ban and oppose guns in schools, they’re going to push their agenda.
Republicans, and specifically Galvano State Reps. Jose Oliva and Carlos Trujillo — who have pushed it in the House — have sent a message to us. They have told us that they don’t listen to their constituency.  They don’t represent us. They represent the gun industry and the National Rifle Association. They represent their pockets and their political action committees.
Related: Florida State Rep. Jose Oliva must go — before he becomes House speaker
But, albeit unknown to them, they also sent another message: Elect Democrats.
Let’s take them up on it. Now is the time for us to send a message right back — that we are not going to tolerate electeds who serve some special interest instead of their constituents. That we are not going to allow them to push their upside down agenda on us. That we are going to make them irrelevant.
This has become a wedge issue like no other Ladra has ever seen. Several voters have told me that they are going to base their votes in November on what happens in Tallahasee this week. One Homestead woman told me at the town hall held by Sen. Annette Taddeo and School Board Member Lubby Navarro — both against arming teachers — that she has voted for both Republican and Democrat candidates, but that she was going to vote straight down the D line if this passes.
While alt right lunatics on Facebook are boycotting the companies that have severed ties with the NRA, all over Florida, voters of all walks of life and all party affiliations are starting another boycott: Republican candidates.
Ladra is in that group. I’m a self-confessed deep purple, card-carrying NPA with Hillary issues — but not only am I voting Democrat just because of this, I pledge right here and now to help other good Democrats across the state get elected. Ladra has always been bipartisan — meaning that I distrust and disdain both parties equally — but we need to send a message back to these people:
If you won’t represent us, we will elect someone who will.

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If there is one local state elected we need to replace this coming November, please let it be State Rep. Jose Oliva, the Miami Lakes Republican who sponsored the odious school “safety bill” (pffft) that doesn’t ban assault rifles but arms teachers in schools, instead.
This is the man who will direct the House agenda next year as Speaker. We can’t let that happen.
Oliva is the man who would put guns in the hands of the teachers who guide our children every day. He had already raised eyebrows with his speaker nomination, since he’s done so very little to deserve it, mostly sponsoring laws that benefit his cigar business and the industry and toeing the party line. This is the first major thing he does. This.
Related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
Democcrats are actively looking for someone to run against Oliva, who should be beatable on this issue. Just let me write the robocalls.
“Our number one priority this year is to send a message to the Florida House that we will defeat your incoming speaker on this issue,” said Juan Cuba, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
He said the party has opened a political action committee called Defeat the NRA and will be using it to push alternatives to the gun-loving incumbents — starting with Oliva.
“We can’t let these politicians who get an A from the NRA run unopposed,” Cuba told Ladra late Tuesday after the House bill that would arm teachers but not ban assault weapons was passed.  “We have to force them to explain to voters why protecting semi automatic rifles is more important than protecting our kids and loved ones.”
Ladra hopes that Cuba and the Democratic Party doesn’t pluck some Venezuelan woman who lives in Broward and was a Republican ten minutes ago to run against him. Or a lobbyist that will be easily attacked. And let’s pray they don’t just prop someone up and then abandon the campaign, like they did with the full House challenge “Fat Chance” candidates that they put up against Republican incumbents in 2014. They all lost.
Related: ‘Fat Chance’ Dems in full House challenge doing next to nada
Because this seat is definitely flippable. Last year, Carlos Puentes, Sr., a military veteran who loaned himself $2,400 for filing expenses, got 45% of the vote without a single advertisement and practically no campaign, against Oliva’s $314,320. Imgaine what a well-funded, credible and viable candidate, who can get her or his message out, can do.
Or let’s not just imagine it. Let’s make it happen. This would send a message that us voters are more important than the NRA.

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Ladra is lucky that her puppy is a graduating senior. The rest of you may need to start looking into home schooling after a group of Florida legislators on Tuesday voted to arm public school teachers — calling them “marshals.”
This is what House Bill 7101, proposed urgently by State Rep. Jose Oliva in the wake of the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, would do. Because that’s what we learned we need most from this tragedy, more guns in schools.
If passed by the full House (maybe as early as Thursday), the law would allow up to ten teachers at each public school to be armed. There are 4,200 schools in our 67 counties, according to the Florida Department of Education. That would mean up to 42,000 guns in schools across the state.
“It’s no different than at the movie theatre, where there might be 10, 20 or 50 people with concealed firearms,” State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, chairman of the appropriations committee, told Ladra hours after the vote had been taken.
While there were many concerns about arming teachers — and many questions that are still unanswered — and despite Parkland survivors opposition to the bill, it passed 23-6, with four Democrats voting in favor: They are state reps Lori Berman (Boynton Beach), David Richardson (Miami Beach), Katie Edwards-Walpole (Sunrise) and Jared Moskowitz (Coral Springs). They must have felt like they had to vote yes because of the other parts of the bill — the ban on bump stocks, raising the legal age to own a gun from 18 to 21, a three-day waiting period for all  gun purchases and more power to law enforcement to confiscate firearms from anyone deemed potentially harmful. There was also the creation of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Public Safety Commission, training for school resource officers, threat assessment teams and mental health programs.
How could Dems vote against all these good ideas being held hostage to the longtime desire by GOP lawmakers to put guns in schools?
It’s almost like the legacy of Parkland will be armed teachers. How sad.
Democrat members of the committee tried to amend the bill. One proposed a ban on assault rifles. That was voted down along party lines. Another wanted to require some document from a medical professional stating that the applicant for a concealed firearm license is not a danger to himself or others. That didn’t pass either.
If the bill becomes law, it would require teachers who want to bring guns to class to undergo background checks and a 130-hour course. “It’s basically a police academy, an abridged version,” Trujillo said of the training. Each sheriff’s department or municipal police agencies like Miami-Dade Police are required to establish these training programs for teachers who want to opt into the “100 percent voluntary program,” where the district’s school board or superintendent has approved it. Trujillo, who has been tapped as the Ambassador to the UN by President Donald Trump,  said he didn’t know that Miami-Dade School Board Superintendent Alberto Carvalho had already blasted the idea. But, while everyone at the committee meeting said that superintendents could opt out, Trujillo told Ladra after the vote that Carvalho is not the last word.
“That’s his choice, but it’s up to the school board,” he said. He knows full well that the nonpartisan group is nonetheless majority Republican, even though one of those, Board Member Lubby Navarro, already came out against arming teachers at Sunday’s school safety town hall at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus.
The law would also give those teachers who opt in a $500 one-time stipend, we assume towards the purchase of a handgun — assault rifles cannot be concealed firearms and, as such, are not allowed — and/or ammunition. Ladra can see the list of supplies parents can donate on the blackboard at next year’s open house night: Copy paper, crayons and a box of .38-caliber conical wadcutters with a beveled base. Students get extra credit for hollow points.
Isn’t it an extra insult that theese lawmakers can’t find the funding to properly stock schools with the supplies and tools teachers need to teach but we’re going to pay them to carry guns?
That’s not the only question we have.
Are teachers the only ones who can volunteer? Can staff? Can the janitor be armed? How about the lunch lady? The bus driver? That’s not clear. We know students can’t carry. Except, maybe, for the problematic ones still in high school at 21, the legal age to carry a concealed weapon. That means 18-year-old high school students must leave their AR15s and Colt 45s in their cars in the parking lot.
“Students with guns! Ha! That’s a funny one, Ladra!” Trujillo sure didn’t think so. “Democrats could have offered an amendment to make the legal age 18,” he said, and Ladra does not think he was kidding.
What if an angry or unstable student is able to take a gun from a teacher? Who is responsible for what happens next?
What if a teacher with a gun is confused for an “active shooter” and is killed by police?
What if a student is killed by “friendly fire” from the teacher’s gun?
A retired teacher and self described gun enthusiast asked the lawmakers not to take this step.
“I don’t want to think about target acquisition. I don’t want to think about field of fire in my classroom,” the woman from Escambia County said, choking up. “Do not ask teachers to choose between shepherding students to safety or confronting a gunman, drawing fire toward my students.
“Depend on us to fiercely defend our students. And fund well-prepared law enforcement professionals to do the work they are supposed to do,” she said.
The mother of Scott Biegel, the geography teacher killed at Stoneman Douglas, also begged them to reconsider. Her son became a teacher to mold young minds, not to be “a law enforcement officer,” Linda Beigel Schulman said.
Trujillo kept stressing to Ladra that gun-toting at school is voluntary, but that doesn’t make parents feel better. What kind of teacher would volunteer to carry a gun in class? Could it be the teachers that already have “personnel” issues? The ones that will be in headlines about sleeping with students or selling drugs or writing porn scripts or something? Those will be first in line to get the guns. And others might feel forced to volunteer because, well, if there are going to be 10 guns at work, they want to have one of them.
Other teachers are going to quit.
That’s okay, though, we won’t need as many. Aalot of students are going to withdraw. Watch as full time virtual school and home schooling numbers boom. Wait… oh, wait… could this be a ploy by Republican legislators to get their friends’ more charter schools?
Teachers are people, too. They have emotions. They lose their tempers. Considering that we still have that oh-so-flexible “stand your ground” law in Florida, what happens if an unruly student becomes aggressive with a teacher? We’ve seen that before. And we’ve seen teachers lose their tempers and react inappropriately by striking students. What if that teacher who feels really threatened — or is just over a particular student’s stunts — pulls a gun on a student? You know that is going to happen. You just know.
“If I take a gun to school, someone is eventually going to get shot,” one teacher told Ladra. She teaches 5th grade.
Trujillo told Ladra that this program might be better suited for rural districts where a police station or officer is typically more than 20 minutes away. And where racism and homophobia are more prevalent, too.
Is that a bonus feature — voter suppression?
This “marshal program” is a poor substitute for real gun reform and school and community safety. It does nothing to stop the next school shooting. It only guarantees that bullets will fly in more directions.

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