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Florida Governor Debuts A Student Safety Plan After School Shooting

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's plan includes changing state laws so only customers 21 years or older can purchase firearms.
Posted at 12:35 PM, Feb 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-23 12:35:25-05

After last week's school shooting, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced his new plan to keep students safe Friday.

"We must take care of our kids," Scott said. "The goal of this plan of action is to make massive changes in protecting our schools, provide significantly more resources for mental health and do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of those dealing with mental problems or threating harm to themselves or others." 

Scott's announcement comes after 17 people were killed Feb. 14 in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After that, Scott worked with school administrators, teachers, law enforcement and mental health professionals to help shape his safety plan.

Scott broke down the initiative into three parts: gun laws, school safety and mental health.

His plan is pretty extensive, but some big highlights include changing state laws so only people 21 years or older can buy a firearm, with exceptions for military and law enforcement officers. He also wants stricter criminal penalties for threats against schools. Scott also wants to put law enforcement officers in every Florida public school by the start of the 2018-19 school year and set aside an additional $50 million for mental health initiatives.

Scott said he'll work with state lawmakers to start implementing his action plan within the next two weeks.