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DeSantis Signs Law Expanding Guardian Program to Florida Colleges and Universities

The move follows last year's Florida State University shooting.

Overview

  • The law, signed Friday in Miami, extends Florida’s K–12 guardian program to public colleges and universities.
  • Prospective campus guardians must complete 144 hours of training, including 132 hours on firearms, with county sheriffs providing the instruction.
  • College presidents may appoint trained faculty or staff to serve as armed guardians on their campuses.
  • The package also orders active-assailant and family reunification plans, yearly security risk reviews, threat-management teams, transfer of K–12 threat and psychological records to higher ed, promotion of the FortifyFL tip app, and added training to spot and respond to mental health needs.
  • It stiffens penalties for gun use near schools by making it a second-degree felony to fire a weapon within 1,000 feet of a campus, and it has drawn Republican support as a deterrent and Democratic warnings about more guns on campus.