Florida Senate panel wants officers in schools

February 19, 2018 11:00 pm • Last Updated: February 20, 2018 3:17 pm

Students from Stoneman Douglas High School, hug survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting before boarding buses in Parkland, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. The students plan to hold a rally Wednesday in hopes that it will put pressure on the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws, something some GOP lawmakers said Monday they would consider.

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Senate committee has endorsed a proposal to put law enforcement officers in every school in the state.

Only slightly more than half of Florida's more than 4,000 public schools have the resource officers. They are sworn law-enforcement officers and allowed to carry a weapon on a school campus.

The Senate Education Committee voted Tuesday to include the requirement in a sweeping education bill that is now moving through the legislature.

The proposal is expected to also be part of a comprehensive gun bill that Senate Republicans plan to release later this week. GOP leaders have drafted the legislation in response to the shootings at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

The state House has voted down a motion to take up a bill that would ban assault rifles. The motion failed by a 36-71 vote.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate say they will consider proposals including raising age restrictions for gun purchases and the red-flag bill regarding temporarily taking away someone's guns if they are deemed a threat to others.

Mourners react as they leave the funeral services for slain Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Carmen Schentrup, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, at St. Amdrews Catholic Church in Coral Springs, Fla. Nilolas Cruz is charged with killing over a dozen people and wounding many others in the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Sen. Bobby Powell talks with survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other students from Broward County, Fla. high schools in his office at the Florida Capital in Tallahassee, Fla., Feb 20, 2018.Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a shooting left 17 dead, are in Tallahassee channeling their anger and sadness into action. (AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser)

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