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Update: Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the compromise gun bill on March 9, 2018 without removing funding for the “Guardian” program. Thanks to everyone who contacted the governor. The new gun control reforms in this legislation will certainly save lives and the “Guardian” program is one of several choices schools can implement to meet the bill’s safety requirements. Now the hard work of lobbying individual school boards to reject “Guardian” training begins at the local level.
On March 7, 2018, the Florida state House and Senate went against the wishes of the NRA and sent a compromise gun bill to Governor Rick Scott‘s desk that is imperfect, but contains some positive reforms.
These reforms include raising the minimum age to purchase a long gun to 21 in Florida, implementing a 3-day waiting period for long gun purchases, banning bump stocks, and creating a Risk Protection Order process for law enforcement to seize firearms from individuals who are a threat to themselves and/or others.
The problem is that the bill also arms school staff. It requires school boards and superintendents to partner with law enforcement agencies to provide at least one “safe-school officer,” which could be: 1) School Resource Officers; 2) District School Safety Officers, or; 3) Gun-toting school “guardians,” which would be open to any teacher who does not exclusively teach in the classroom. This could force tough and sometimes risky decisions on schools with limited budgets.
Needless to say the “guardian” program is opposed by the Florida Education Association and virtually every teachers group in the state. The only organization that wants it is the dreadful NRA.
Thankfully, Florida Governor Rick Scott has also expressed opposition to arming teachers, and because the “Guardian” program was included in an omnibus appropriations bill, he has the ability to eliminate funding for the program with a line-item veto!
Please contact Governor Scott through one of the channels below and give him the following message (personalized to your liking):
Governor Scott, I am contacting you today to demand that you exercise your line-item veto power and remove funding for the “Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program” from the omnibus appropriations bill that has been sent to your desk by the Florida House and Senate (SB 7026). The answer to school shootings is NOT to introduce more guns into our schools by arming school staff who are supposed to be these children’s protectors, not their potential executors. Doing so would create enormous problems with firearms retention and the learning environment in these schools and lead to more gun violence, not less. You have an opportunity to do some real good by approving the limited gun control reforms in SB 7026. Don’t mar that by simultaneously creating an armed teacher program that no one but the NRA wants. I know you plan on running for the U.S. Senate after leaving the governor’s office and I am watching your actions on SB 7026 like a hawk. If you do not exercise your line item veto power to terminate funding for the “Guardian Program,” I will do everything in my power—peacefully and democratically—to make sure you never see elected office again.
Governor Rick Scott
Phone: (850) 488-7146
Email: rick.scott@eog.myflorida.com or https://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/governorrickscott/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FLGovScott
Hashtag: #gunviolence
Once you have contacted Governor Scott, click the orange banner below to report taking action!