Tag: Firearm

As investigators in Jacksonville, Florida, search for the motive behind the state’s latest deadly shooting, Ali Velshi takes a closer look at Florida’s gun laws and just how easy it is to get a firearm. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc…

Donald Trump will propose to arm school staff and raise the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 in a plan the administration will release on Sunday, a White House spokesman said. The deputy White House press secretary, Raj Shah, told ABC’s This Week Trump was also likely to back a bipartisan Senate bill that Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Chris Murphy introduced to improve federal compliance with criminal background checks. Since the shooting last month in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, he has offered conflicting statements on gun policies, at times calling for new restrictions and at other times rowing back. Student survivors of the Florida shooting have mobilized to call for stricter laws. A former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school is accused of using an assault-style rifle to carry out the massacre. Shah did not say if Trump’s proposal to raise the minimum age for buying certain guns would involved supporting federal legislation or encouraging states to act. Many Republican lawmakers say such moves should be left to states. An NRA spokesman, Chris Cox, responded that the bill punished law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a “deranged individual”. Chris Grady, a senior at Stoneman Douglas and an organizer of a rally against gun violence planned for 24 March in Washington, called March for our Lives, said the Florida bill was “nowhere near the long-term solution” and “a baby step, but a huge step at the same time”. The gunman Stephen Paddock used a bump stock in an October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and more than 850 injured.

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced on Friday that he wants to raise the age limit in the state for buying a firearm to the age of 21, just one week after a 19-year-old shot allegedly 17 people at a high school in the state. Scott also said Florida would completely ban bump stocks, which dramatically increase semi-automatic weapons’ potential rate of fire, and prohibit the mentally ill from accessing weapons. “There will be exceptions for active duty, reserved military and spouses, national guard members and law enforcement.” Scott’s announcement was part of his comprehensive plan to address school safety in the wake of last week’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The plan, which he said he wanted to implement within the next two weeks, covers gun laws, school safety, and mental health. (While the students were there, the Florida House declined to take up legislation to ban assault rifles.) “This is a time when I believe we must come together and even cross party lines,” said Scott. He said the state would create a program called the “violent threat restraining order,” which would prohibit a mentally ill person from buying a weapon when law enforcement or a family member provides evidence to the court of a threat of violence involving any weapons. “Government does not have to be slow or lethargic,” he said. “When it comes to protecting our kids we need to be swift and decisive.” Scott, who is strongly considering a run for Senate, had received criticism in the wake of the shooting after he declined to initially address gun control measures, and failed to appear at the Wednesday’s CNN town hall with survivors of the shooting. He is a member of the National Rifle Association, who had given him an A+ rating for his pro-gun stances, and noted in in 2014 that he had signed “more pro-gun bills into law — in one term — than any other Governor in Florida history.” The NRA did not immediately respond to request for comment.