Staff Reports
The Florida Legislative Black Caucus announced Wednesday evening it will “hold a press conference to announce (its) opposition to legislation moving through the Florida House and Senate that would provide incentives to arm schoolteachers in Florida.”
The news conference is 11:30 a.m. Thursday, on the 4th floor rotunda of the Capitol.
In a statement, Democratic Sen. Perry Thurston Jr. of Fort Lauderdale said “putting firearms in the hands of our educators is absurd.”
“That’s clearly a job for law enforcement,” added Thurston, the caucus chair. “What lawmakers should be doing is finding ways to keep guns out of our schools, something the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have told us repeatedly.”
A “Marshal Program” now under consideration, part of the Legislature’s response to the Parkland shooting, “would allow teachers to carry weapons in districts where the school board or superintendent supports it,” according to the Washington Post.
“The lawmakers will also discuss strategies to amend legislation on the floor of the Florida House and Senate respectively to ban semi-automatic weapons, like the AR-15 that was used to kill 14 students and three adults,” a press release said.
