Reuters/Joshua Roberts
Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks about hurricane relief measures for Florida and Puerto Rico at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 29, 2017.
- Florida's Republican governor said Friday he will push law makers to raise the minimum age to buy a gun to 21 from 18.
- Gov. Rick Scott also said he wants to ban "bump stocks" and will ask for $500 million in mental health and school safety initiatives.
- The announcement comes after a high-school shooting in Parkland left 17 people dead.
- The measures Scott announced Friday fell short of that survivors of the Valentine's Day attack called for.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday he'll back raising the minimum age to purchase any type of gun to 21 from 18, in a major break with the National Rifle Association after last week's high-school shooting.
Scott said he would work with state lawmakers during the next two weeks to raise the minimum age, with some exceptions for younger military members and law enforcement officers. Long guns, including the semiautomatic AR-15-style assault rifle used in the Feb. 14 attack, can be bought by people as young as 18 under current law.
He also said he supported a ban on "bump stock" devices, which accelerate semiautomatic rifles' gunfire and were used in last year's shooting in Las Vegas.
Scott said he would also ask for $500 million in mental health and school safety initiatives, and called for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school and for mandatory "active shooter training" for student and faculty.
"No one who has mental issues should should have access to a gun," Scott, a Republican, said at a press conference on Friday. "I will not accept the old, tired political notion that we don't have enough time to get anything done."
But Scott's announcement fell short of what survivors called for after last week's mass shooting. Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Authorities have said that Cruz, who was expelled from Stoneman Douglas High last year for unspecified disciplinary problems.
Students from the school traveled to the state Capitol in Tallahassee this week to push lawmakers to ban the sale of all military-style guns like the AR-15, which was used in the massacre.
"Banning specific weapons and punishing law-abiding citizens is not going to fix this," Scott said. "We have to really focus on the problem. We have to take all weapons away from people with mental illnesses."
Scott also broke with President Donald Trump on his proposal to arm certain schoolteachers with concealed firearms, an idea that has drawn overwhelming opposition from teachers and lawmakers from both parties.
"I disagree with arming teachers," Scott said.