Fla. governor signs school safety bill in wake of Parkland shooting

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a school safety bill passed by the Legislature in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month that killed 17 people. The bill signed Friday falls short of what many of the shooting’s survivors advocated for.

It raises the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extends a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns and bans bump stocks that allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire. It also creates a so-called “guardian” program that enables teachers and other school employees to carry handguns. 

Student activists from the school where the shooting took place followed the bill’s track closely and called it “a baby step.” 

The bill, however, marks Scott’s break with the National Rifle Association, and the group’s powerful lobbyist called the bill “a display of bullying and coercion” that would violate Second Amendment rights and punish law-abiding citizens.

The shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz, remains jailed without bond. Cruz made his first court appearance on 17 charges of first-degree attempted murder Friday. The 19-year-old accused of opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was already being held without bond on 17 charges of murder. 

Cruz’s lawyer did not contest the judge’s order.

The massacre is the deadliest school shooting to occur in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, five years ago.