Florida Governor Rick Scott

Speaking at a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott unveiled his plan to prevent another school attack like the one that claimed 17 lives in Parkland, Florida . . .

Governor Scott pledged his support for an ex parte “gun violence restraining order,” raising the minimum age to purchase any type of firearm to 21, banning bump fire stocks and putting a police officer in every school.

“We can’t trust the federal process,” Governor Scott asserted, as he promised to spend $450m on his police and mental health provision plan, which would allocate one officer per 1000 students. “Fortunately our economy is booming . . . if we have to forgo tax cuts this year so be it.”

More worrying, Governor Scott made the following blanket statement: “No one with mental issues should have access to a gun.” Governor Scott warned that his plan faces critics from both sides, those who think it’s too much and those who think it’s too little.

When pushed on the Parkland students’ demand for a ban on AR15s, “we’ve got to take all weapons away from people who pose a threat” he responded. As for arming teachers, Governor Scott reiterated his opposition. “Let law enforcement keep us safe and teachers focus on education . . . I believe law enforcement will protect us.”

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91 COMMENTS

  1. The school had a deputy sheriff on duty. We have proof of this cause there’s video of him hiding safely away during the murder spree. This governor and the sheriff of broward county need to go.

    The other thing that needs to go today are gun free zones.

    • When seconds count, the cops are hiding behind a pillar. I’m just glad he got to go home safe at the end of the day.

      • And draw his 75% pension at 54 years old. Only working for the government do you get a pension even if you don’t do your job. I sure hope he gets what he deserves.

        • To whom are you referring; governor, sheriff, or deputy? Rick Scott has a net worth in excess of $150 million, so I think even though he’ll draw a pension, he doesn’t need it.

      • Let’s be fair, do you honestly believe that the majority of School Resource Officers are anything other than the bottom of the barrel?

        • Most good cops want to be cops and not security guards.

          Most departments want their best cops also being cops and not babysitting kids based on the .0003% chance of an armed attack.

          Unfortunately, the SRO program is perhaps fatally flawed by this.

        • School police are routinely a joke. They aren’t ready for the street, so they are relegated to hallway patrol.

        • The problem is, there is no personal investment from the SRO, who probably doesn’t even want to be there.

          So we have uninterested defenders, who face no consequence for not doing their job, and we wonder why they pop smoke when things get a little tough.

    • And, well, he is one person that can expect the police to protect him so I understand his statement about that too. He is correct in that he will be fine.

  3. Would there have to be a separate law requiring the police officers to “do something” when faced with an active shooter? Will retirement be one of the options?

  5. Up here in Canada, if you pass the various requirements to get a gun license, you can purchase whatever is legal at age 18. To throw out a few facts- I haven’t seen any evidence to suggest that our younger licensed gun owners are better or worse crime wise than our older ones. Canadian statistics show that gun owners in general commit far fewer violent crimes in general versus the rest of the population.

    There are a lot of younger people who are in situations where a firearm for defense is needed. If someone wanted to add additional requirements to their ownership, I could understand that viewpoint (whether I agree is a different matter)- but a blanket ban? I don’t mean to interfere with another nation’s politics, but I’m not convinced that shutting the door to legal gun purchases for 18-21 year olds is the solution.

    • Right is right, wrong is wrong, and facts are facts, regardless of what country we happen to live in.

      I wholeheartedly welcome your assessment of right and wrong and facts ColdNorth.

    • I love visiting America’s hat, Victoria is one of the prettiest towns in the world. I was based in Esquimalt after 9/11 on Op Apollo.

  6. GVRO – Deprivation of civil liberties under the color of law
    Bump Stock Ban – Legislative theater
    21 Gun purchase – You can vote/smoke/military/contract/marry.. but not purchase a gun? GTFO.

    • Gun Violence Restraining Orders are a perfect way for abusive individuals to disarm their victims. “She threatened me with a gun, yer Honor!”

  8. Scott is term limited. He’s gone in November. However, he is running for Sen Bill Nelson’s seat, and he’s the one who really needs to go. I’ll settle for Scott over Nelson. That said, saying we need to trust law enforcement when all the law enforcement from the FBI on down failed us, seems a bit clueless.

    • “… saying we need to trust law enforcement when all the law enforcement from the FBI on down failed us, seems a bit clueless.”

      And how!

    • All Florida residents should email the govenor.

      I just did. He needed to know that Im gojng to vote for his opponent in the Senate race unless he retracts his unconstitutional proposal.

    • He will give Rubio some real competition as the dumbest RINO candidate for Senate from Fl. Is it the water?

  9. Translation: “Our government processes failed. It’s time to restrict rights and make more government processes.”

    • The LE mantra of protection is a ruse. The supreme court ruled in 2005 that LEO’s do not have a constitutional duty to protect anyone! Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005),

  11. Re: gun violence restraining order. Restraining orders of this type are routinely granted on nothing more than someone’s, usually a wife’s, word that her husband or boyfriend poses a threat. This is an intentionally flimsy, barely legal process. It accepts the inevitable fact that a percentage (my guess is a rather large percentage) of the requests are not true, that the “threat” is really a pissed-off wife’s expression of anger at her soon-to-be ex-husband or boyfriend or, even worse, the cynical suggestion of a lawyer in a custody case. Of necessity, these restraining-order decisions are by definition arbitrary and based on quite limited information. And the good ‘ole Gov want’s to use something like this to abridge a constitutional right? And so he thinks allowing a local bureaucracy to have this kind of power is a good idea? How in the hell did someone like this get elected Governor? Bad, bad, idea.

  12. I believe law enforcement will protect us

    You mean the ones that have no legal obligation to protect the public, according to law?

    Fvcking moron.

    • He is one person that probably can expect LEOs to protect him so he is partly justified in saying that;-)

  14. Way to piss away your senate campaign Skeletor. What a waste after posturing about the FBI’s failure.

    I’m seriously and knowingly voting for Nelson if it’s between them. He’ll be easier to dislodge in six years. Nelson is also so old we likely won’t have to wait that long either, and Putnam or DeSantis as gov would pick someone better.

    • I called National Car Rental this morning and had them delete my 10 year old Emerald Club membership. Don’t want to do business with the NRA and POTG, fine I won’t do business with you…

    • I think this is the perfect time to have Trump for president. Why? Because he is loading the vacancies in federal courts with conservative justices. He may or may not be truly pro gun.

      But he is for sure pro business. Conservative judges will help to turn back rules and regulations that impede business and profits.

      As a by product of them being conservative we will likely enough get favorable rulings in favor of gun rights. We already have a scotus ruling that the right to own a firearm is an individual right.

      • My son and I were discussing it this morning and are considering the opposite. You have the left hating Trump and liberty. You have POTG bitterly split on Trump. Hillary and the DNC helped get Trump elected. Liberals are super galvanized and conservatives are fragmented. Those who are vehemently supporting Trump are convinced there is not much to worry about. Trump does not really understand inalienable individual rights or why the distinction is so damned important to a free society. We *think* that it might be the perfect storm against liberty.

        • I think you may have the right of it. Trump really just wants to be liked and to be seen as “doing something, anything, just stop the carnage”.

          Gorsuch’s nomination is a great thing for our side of the table, particularly given the Heller dissent’s position that it’s unreasonable to expect RKBA to apply to within your own home and Hillary’s likelihood to have appointed additional justices with the same point of view, but I just can’t get past how mercurial our president is (starts tweeting the opposite of decisions already made because of lobbying on Fox & Friends) and how 2A’s protection requires steadfastness in the most trying of circumstances.

      • BTW: Your framework requires incremental restoration of the exercise of the individual RKBA. We don’t subscribe to that model. Indeed, we believe that true exercise of individual rights rarely get properly restored incrementally. That’s probably why your speculation and our speculation are so different.

    • I know that the reason their dumping the NRA is different, but F the NRA and their fundraising guilt trip, Wayne and Boobs McGee yesterday were basically shilling for donations. They compromise at every possibility opportunity, then fundraise against their own compromise. The GOA is a better option, even though their social media guy is 12 years old and wears his suits with short pants.

  17. “Let law enforcement keep us safe and teachers focus on education” Broward county deputy stood outside for 4 minutes and did not engage. Looks like you need a better plan

  19. Move all existing police sub-stations directly into schools. Pay for the new ‘in school’ substations by selling the vacated buildings and land.

    Community policing at its best. No need to exponentially increase costs for School security if law enforcement is already present where they can be most effective.

  20. Governor Rick Scott has lost his freaking mind I cannot believe our governor is so stupid. Gun restrictions and gun control aren’t going to help this one bit. First off how about getting rid of the freaking gun free zones armed teachers and coaches. Have more routine patrols of officers in the area needing to do paperwork or just hang out to kill some time do it at the schools. Like any of the stuff he has done is going to do any good whatsoever just pissing in the wind taking away more of our rides and they’re going to come right back for more. It’s like I’ve lost the planet Earth and I’m awning 3rd dimensional world of BS.

  21. They don’t want to let 18-year-old American citizens own a rifle, but they are very content to send that same 18-year-old to a different country to die carrying one? Does that sound right to you?

    Last week Congress was talking about how to keep kids from eating Tide pods, this week Congress is letting kids set policy on our Constitutional rights. Does that sound right to you?

    • Gubernoor Scott
      You want to take the guns out of the hands of anybody under twenty-one and put the po-lice in every school. Lets get this started by you consider paying these officers? And just think how much better you will have the USA looking in the Olympics when the competitors under twenty-one show up with cap guns. And you wont have to worry about the kids from Ca. as cap guns are outlawed in Cali. You see they have an Gubernoor as bad as you want to be.
      And the branches of the US military will be out for blood if you take those guns from the guy’s under twenyt-one. That would likely increase basic training another two weeks and have the TI,s screaming. You, Mr Scott are an real Wiener.

  22. Hey, Governor Dipstick, if you’re so sure that law enforcement will protect “us,” let’s put Deputy Scot Peterson in charge of your security.

  24. Everyone turn in your guns because government has good intentions and will never use its power against citizens.

  27. “We can’t trust the federal process,” and “I believe law enforcement will protect us.”

    The FBI failed twice. The Florida process failed no less than 43 times. Most of those were law enforcement failures. They had the tools, they had the laws. What they didn’t have was the willingness and/or the competence.

  28. Governor Scott: How many police officers do you plan to put in a school with 10+ buildings and 3,000 students, like the high school in Parkland whose tragedy has sparked this initiative?

    The reason for allowing teachers to be armed is that they’re located inside of the rooms with students and capable of ending the threat should an assailant enter into a classroom and protect the 20-30 children whose health and safety are entrusted to them, not because anyone thinks that they should secretly be ninjas and run around the school chasing an assailant.

    Would having a couple of extra guards to prevent a flawed human from being a single point of failure be an improvement? Sure, but you’re still relying on a single layer of security that, once penetrated, leaves our children completely vulnerable.

  29. It’s not the job description that matters, it’s the person reacting that counts. Aaron Feis, unarmed teacher and school security guard, ran to the sound of guns. Scott Peterson, armed deputy sheriff, didn’t. Aaron, not allowed to have a gun because he was only a teacher, put his body between the kids he taught and the killer, saved lives and died. Deputy Scott Peterson took up a position outside the school and listened to the sound of gunfire for four minutes while kids died.

  31. Another worthless coward/politician we are drowning in them. The only advantage to them doing these announcements is it makes it easier to primary them.

  32. Dumbest idea I’ve heard from a politician in a while.. Until we get rid of the “gun free zones”.. we are just buying time till the next slaughter…

    Someone really should remind him that with modern technology, guns can be “printed”… NO AGE LIMIT.. OR BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIRED..!

    I refuse to support any addition infringement on the 2nd Amendment.., until we get rid of these areas!!!

  33. Funny I didn’t see “getting rid of the Gun Free School Zone” on that list of things.

    I guess Rick Scott doesn’t really want security, just “security theater”.

  34. “We can’t trust the federal process,” Governor Scott asserted,

    “Let law enforcement keep us safe and teachers focus on education . . . I believe law enforcement will protect us.”
    Law enforcement?………..Like the one that stood outside school while 17 students were slaughtered by a guy You knew about and had at least 2 chances to stop? THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT?

    “When seconds count, F**K the police you’re on your own bucko”

  35. The Republicans are definitely not going to be winning any elections. By pandering to The Moms and Bloomberg, they will discover that conservatives who support the second amendment won’t be voting for them. And trying to be the new, Diet Cherry Vanilla Democrats isn’t going to win votes with the progressives calling for socialism, complete disarming, etc. Playing the middle won’t win them any friends… Or votes.

    Bloomberg must be smiling.

    Who deserves the most blame, the shooter who started this round of attacks… Or those exploiting the situation?

  39. Wow — Rick Scott managed to get pretty much everything exactly wrong. That’s a little surprising, as he’s Trump’s “bestie” right now.

    Total and utter fail in every possible way.

  40. Raise gun buying age to 21 as soon as the military raises the minimum age of a soldier going into harms way to 21.

  41. The Fl GOP backed omnibus “gun control” bill is on the Fl Senate’s rules committee for Monday. Consider it passed. Only hope now is the Fl House.

  42. Amazing. So Floridians have completely lost faith in their population of under 21 year olds. The same people who are expected to die to protect all of our collective freedoms in war. America’s expiration date draws ever closer. 🙁

  43. Ah, Maybe your Floridian Governor and his Administration is receiving help from his RINO Globalist Counterpart in the Peoples Republic Of Massachusetts…Who of course is in league with Militant Lib-TARD Pro-Aggressive (re: insert political sub-catogory. Socialist/Marxist/Communist.) DemoCrappic Party…..Maybe We’ll send down AG. Maura Healey to really show you how its done in infringements against the lawful citizens…If anything Massachusetts knows is how to Criminalize its residents…..

  44. You know maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I’m kinda glad the gun grabbers have been turning up the heat lately because it has led to being able to see which politicians are squishy losers that will cave in at nothing and which ones will actually hold the line.

  45. what he should have said was:

    “if any person or entity henceforth declares a gun free zone anywhere and subsequent to that declaration fails to provide adequate security and defenses and a tragedy ensues said person or entity will have to defend that decision in a court of law which will determine their liability and culpability both criminally and civilly”

    once people start facing jail time and or civil fines for their ill conceived decision to violate other peoples human rights by taking away their natural right to self defense they will definitely change their tune

    just remember who gave birth to the whole gun free zone in the modern era:

    thats right…

    none other than uncle joe “big fucking deal” biden…

    “How Joe Biden Turned Our Schools Into Shooting Galleries”

    https://conservativetribune.com/joe-biden-turned-schools-into/

    thanks biden

  47. The governor’s reliance on the police might be valid if they and the FBI had admirably accounted themselves. But, both the FBI and the Coward County Cops miserably failed any part of a real life test presented and allowed the deaths of 17.

  50. Speaking at a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott unveiled his plan to prevent another school attack like the one that claimed 17 lives in Parkland, Florida . . .

    There’s the problem right there. Spun the goal to “prevent another attack.” I thought the goal was keeping people alive so they can live their lives? As a politicritter, “prevent another attack” is way better fodder than keeping people alive. Not for, you know, solving anything, but that’s not the point here.

    Better speech…

    “There’s a lot we can do. We’re going to focus on what will help keep people alive. One thing we’ve learned from this is that keeping people — our kids — alive when they’re at school needs regular, ongoing attention. It’s just part of the job. So, these are the first things, not the last things we’re going to do to keep our kids alive in school…

    Organize Responding – A lot of kids got out, because a few kids organized guiding them out of there. Some died saving their friends.

    We’re going to look at state requirements for the design of schools, to get kids out. We have fire extinguishers and fire drills. I don’ know what the answers are, exactly, but we can start by thinking ahead of time about what those kids did in an instant, that saved lives.

    Bad things happen. Whack-jobs shooting up schools is rare, thank god. A little attention on how to get clear and take care of each other makes our kids safer from all sorts of things.

    Protecting Schools — It ends when someone shoots back. We’ll look at programs to put guards in schools. Meanwhile, as we saw with students, and teachers most Floridians will step up to protect themselves and their friends, so we’re going to look at letting them protect themselves better.

    I don’t have details yet. Yes, some sort of resource officers or similar. BUT as we’ve seen that doesn’t always work, either. I suspect some sort of qualification and tracking requirement if you want to carry your own defensive arms in schools makes sense. Doubtless other things as well. But the point is, we should let the good people do more, rather than stop them from doing what they already can.

    Anybody who dies holding a door for his friends to escape, I’m not going to judge what tools we will allow that guy.

    Missing The Problem — There’s a lot of noise around reports of this guy, social media postings and the like. Whatever the details, could we have seen this coming? Even had their not been police contact, reports of threats and the rest … the point is to see this kind of thing coming.

    I’ve ordered a review of how we do that. We’ll have the details of that review in a couple weeks. This is a crazy-complicated thing. I don’t even know where to start.

    Working With Government — Each of these approaches will take legislation. We don’t have all of it written, and we’re not going to try to write it all at once.

    This isn’t taking advantage of a crisis to slam something through while people are all wee-wee’d up. We want to make this better, which will be a piece at a time, over time. As we submit each suggestion to the appropriate committees, we’ll put copies of the proposed legislation up on the governor’s web site.

    We’re going to suggest a lot of little things, and get each one rolling as soon as its ready. So, monitor that. If you have specific, concrete suggestions, we’re looking at a way to capture those, too. Some of those will fly; some won’t. For example, I know some people are quite clear on “ban assault weapons” or “repeal the 2A.” The point is *exactly* what does that mean, and how are you going to do it. With laws, the devil is always in the details.

    The thing is, we have laws banning guns from schools. We know that those laws didn’t keep that whack-job from bringing a gun to shoot up a school. And they did prevent the jROTC marksmanship team — the kids who stepped up and protected their friends — from having access to their guns when the whack-job came along. Now, net, did that law help or harm this time? Does it help or harm in general?

    That’s the kind of conversation we need to have, to do better keeping kids in our schools alive, just like the teachers and kids who died for their friends did, about a week ago.

    • Gov. Scott,

      With all due respect there are thousands of women who have signed a restraining order on someone and those women ended up dear or very seriously hurt. Restraining orders protect no one.

  51. So who decides one is mentally ill and who decides your name goes on the the list. (where’s the due process for going on or off the list.) You go to a marriage therapist perhaps and the therapist decides your not quite right. Or you have been treated for any number of these so called illinesses and I’ll bet I can label any one of you with this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mental_disorders

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