Florida state legislators have started working to loosen regulations on firearms, sparking concerns from gun control advocates that Florida is heading in the wrong direction on school safety.
A state House committee voted Tuesday to allow employees, parents and visitors to have guns stowed in their cars while on school property. Another bill cleared the panel that would allow religious institutions to permit guns to be carried in private schools.
The measures are the first of several controversial proposals this legislative session that would expand gun rights for Floridians. About a year ago, the Parkland school shooting prompted calls for tighter restrictions on firearms.
State Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, said parents shouldn’t face criminal charges if they pick up their child from school during an emergency with a gun in their “glove compartment for their personal safety.”
“It decriminalizes the potential behavior of thousands of parents across the state of Florida,” she said.
Existing law allows school districts to prohibit guns on school property, including school parking lots. Violating that rule is a felony offense under Florida law.
Districts could continue to prohibit students from having guns on campus under the proposal, and firearms could not be taken into school buildings. But the bill (HB 6005) would allow visitors or employees to leave their guns in their car while parked in school lots.
Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, told state lawmakers she views the prohibition on guns in school lots as an unconstitutional burden.
“We are a mobile society,” she said. “Anywhere we go we are allowed to have a firearm locked in our vehicle.”
Gun control advocates say the proposal won’t make children safer.
The bill would make “tragedy exponentially more likely” during parking-lot arguments at school, said Jamie Ito, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.