The measure — dubbed the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” — raises the age to buy all firearms to 21, imposes a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, allows trained school workers to carry handguns, provides new mental health programs for schools, and restricts access to guns from people who show signs of mental illness or violence.
Scott announced his support of the bill at a news conference with relatives of the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland. He praised them, along with student survivors, for pressing lawmakers to improve school safety and keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
The Florida state legislature passed the bill this week.
“Every student in Florida has a right to learn in a safe environment. And every parent has a right to send their kids to school knowing they will return safely at the end of the day,” Scott said. “Today I am signing bipartisan legislation that will help us achieve that.”
The new law marks a rare act of defiance in Florida against the National Rifle Association, which wields considerable influence there and has supported Scott, a Republican.
The NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, said it was disappointed with the new law’s age restriction and waiting period.
“This bill punishes law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a deranged individual,” the NRA-ILA’s executive director, Chris Cox, said in a statement. “Securing our schools and protecting the constitutional rights of Americans are not mutually exclusive. Instead of looking to the root cause of this premeditated violence, the gun control provisions in this law wrongly blame millions of Floridians who safely and responsibly exercise their right to self-defense.”