Over a seemingly endless amount of time after last year’s Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland that left the state awestruck and blurred party lines in the state Capitol; the Florida Senate passed a follow-up bill that has turned out to become increasingly partisan due to the expansion in the program that would enable teachers to arm themselves.

It succeeded on a 22-17 vote. In spite of the fact that the vote count isn’t very far off from last year’s 20-18 vote, it did fall substantially more along party lines. Only one state senator, Anitere Flores, a Republican from Miami, kept it from being a complete party line passage when she casted a vote against the bill with every one of the Democrats.

The 54-page proposition, Senate Bill 7030, cleared the floor with its most contentious piece intact: an expansion of the “Guardian” program made a year ago that would enable teachers to volunteer to carry firearms after having undergone substantial training and screening by a sheriff’s office.

Under the present law, teachers who “only perform classroom duties” are not qualified to take part in the program – a carve-out that was added as a compromise to Democrats and then-Gov. Rick Scott, who restricted enabling teachers to have guns on campus.

Other than the piece related to arming teachers, the bill additionally incorporates a huge number of other subsequent follow-ups to last year’s law, the vast majority of which are bolstered by lawmakers of the two parties. These include particulars on how schools should actualize mental health services for their students and clears up districts’ shared obligation to help ensure that charter schools have armed security.

The bill also would make an institutionalized “threat assessment” tool for schools to maintain a track of students they feel may pose a “behavioral threat” to themselves or others.

As a law abiding citizen and a responsible teacher, it is the need of the hour to take this bill into your own hands and get yourself a gun to be a part of the safety program. If you’re trying to find firearms dealers in Fort Meyers, reach out to Florida FFL. We have a wide variety of firearms with certification.