When Andres Cubillos is on FSU\u2019s campus, he always scouts for his nearest exit or where he could hide if someone pulled out a gun.<\/p>\n
The graduate student at Florida State University said students are \u201cconstantly aware\u201d of the threat of gun violence \u2013\u2013 and more so at his Tallahassee campus where a 20-year-old opened fire last April, killing two people.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t walk by our student union anymore without thinking about it,\u201d said Cubillos, a volunteer with Students Demand Action, a national organization that advocates for stricter gun laws.<\/p>\n
The shooting at FSU prompted some Republican state legislators this year to push for a law that would allow professors and other employees, but not students, to carry weapons on campuses if they are trained \u201cguardians.\u201d. They view armed guardians as a way to increase safety at Florida\u2019s colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
But opponents of the bill \u2013\u2013 both in the Legislature and on university campuses \u2013\u2013 argue adding more guns to campuses would make emergencies more volatile and cause unnecessary anxiety for students and staff.\n<\/p>\n
Cubillos, who had friends in the student union last year when the gunman opened fire inside and outside the building, is among them. More guns could turn campuses into the \u201cwild west,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine anybody feeling safer in that kind of situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rep. Michelle Salzman, a Republican from Escambia County and the sponsor of the legislation in the Florida House, was a graduate student at FSU at the time of the shooting, though not on campus that day. She said the proposal is \u201cbuilt on the lessons learned\u201d and would enhance safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile law enforcement responded quickly, that incident exposed gaps in communication, coordination, preparedness and protection particularly in our post-secondary institutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A police officer shot and incapacitated the FSU shooter about three minutes after the young man started shooting. The gunman wounded five people in addition to killing two others.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers, we were all here that day a year ago either in our committee rooms or in our offices,\u201d Salzman said. \u201cWe all saw the news, we all saw the alerts. It was a scary time,\u201d she added, urging her legislative colleagues to make colleges a \u201csafer place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House passed its version of the bill (HB 757) in late February, mostly along party lines with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. Its fate in the Senate is uncertain, however, as the Legislature is in the final week of its session.<\/p>\n
The bill is an expansion of the K-12 guardian program created after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 that left 17 people dead. That program allows trained school staff to carry guns on campuses. Many local school districts have opted to put police officers on school grounds instead, however, given they get more intensive training. But 53 counties currently have schools participating in the K-12 program.<\/p>\n
Participation in the new initiative would be optional for Florida\u2019s 12 public universities and 28 public colleges. A school\u2019s president would appoint guardians.<\/p>\n
As with the K-12 program, college guardians would complete a 144-hour training, including 132 hours of firearm training and 12 hours of conflict de-escalation tactics. They would also undergo a psychological evaluation and random drug tests.<\/p>\n
Jocelys Isaac, a sophomore at the University of Central Florida, said the program likely would make her feel safer on campus, though she also wasn\u2019t sure it was needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t impact our day-to-day life unless it\u2019s an emergency,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n
In the Legislature, much of the debate on the bill focused on whether the program would place a burden on the state\u2019s educators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most people who love students and love young people would have a very hard time shooting a young person,\u201d said Scott Perry, the vice president of the faculty senate at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n
He said professors who have dedicated their lives to taking care of young people wouldn\u2019t be eager to sign up for the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the idea that I would shoot a 20-year-old\u2026\u201d Perry said in reference to the gunman at FSU.<\/p>\n
Other opponents called the program redundant given that universities already have on-campus police departments and said armed professors wouldn\u2019t make campuses safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity isn\u2019t just walking around with a gun or having a gun while teaching a classroom,\u201d said Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, who was the city\u2019s mayor at the time of the 2018 massacre. \u201cSecurity is paying attention to all the things that are going on on-campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Cassanello, the president of Florida\u2019s faculty union, said most professors don\u2019t want the legislation. Mass shootings already create \u201cconfusion and crisis on campus\u201d and the proposal would worsen that, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdding guns is like adding gasoline to a fire,\u201d said Cassanello, who is also an associate professor of history at UCF.<\/p>\n
UCF student Destin Crews agreed. The guardians\u2019 guns could be misplaced or stolen, adding to students\u2019 anxiety that someone on campus has a weapon, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many kids went into their daddy\u2019s locker and stole their gun and then went to school with that?\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The bill also prohibits anyone from shooting a gun within 1,000 feet of a school during operating hours or during school events. And it would require universities to promote an app for reporting suspicious activity and to adopt specified emergency response plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Andres Cubillos is on FSU\u2019s campus, he always scouts for his nearest exit or where he could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,28,30,29,114,266,115,109],"class_list":["post-185609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}