The Florida Senate will hear SB 7026 in a rare Saturday session tomorrow, March 3rd at 10 AM. This bill would arm our teachers through what is called the Marshal Program. We have major concerns about the following:
- From a technical perspective, there is no mention of follow up, in-service training, either with defensive tactics or firearms
- No mention of periodic re-qualification with issued firearms; no mention of safe storage of firearms
- No mention of civil or criminal liability exposure or insurance requirements; no mention of reporting requirements, or training to document uses of force
- No mention of who will pay for the 100 hours of training, the firearms, maintenance, storage, periodic re-training (assuming it exists) and administration of the program
- Former professional law enforcement use of force trainers say that barely trained armed civilians will only make things worse. Trained police officers reliably miss their target 50% of the time.
Our teachers do not want to be armed. Call or email your
Senator today and ask that they remove the Marshal Program from SB 7026. Continue to ask for a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity magazines, and for background checks on all gun sales.
