{"id":348838,"date":"2025-12-16T17:14:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/?p=348838"},"modified":"2025-12-16T17:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:17:07","slug":"new-florida-bill-would-allow-professors-tas-to-open-carry-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/new-florida-bill-would-allow-professors-tas-to-open-carry-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"New Florida bill would allow professors, TAs to open carry on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
Credit:<\/span> mark reinstein \/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Florida professors, university faculty, and teaching assistants could soon be able to openly carry firearms on campus, thanks to a sweeping new measure filed by a Republican lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, is sponsoring the legislation, entitled \u201cSchool Safety,\u201d to address security concerns in higher education. If passed, the bill would remove college campuses as gun-free zones \u2014 marking a significant shift in how Florida handles gun issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would become one of the few Second Amendment expansion bills adopted in Florida since the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, which prompted a higher gun-purchasing age and red flag laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with the Phoenix, Gaetz called his legislation \u201csadly timed,\u201d adding that he \u201cnever wanted\u201d to file a bill like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He referred to a slate of violent incidents in the past few months, including a shooting spree at Florida State University in April, the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September, a shooting at Brown University over the weekend, and, most recently, an anti-Jewish shooting in Australia that left 15 dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in a world where our institutions are being threatened,\u201d Gaetz said, adding that he\u2019s already filed another bill aimed at increasing protection outside of churches, mosques, and synagogues. \u201cI\u2019m sorry that I\u2019m having to do this, but it just seems as though places in our society that we thought were safe, even sacrosanct, are now becoming targets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he anticipates objections that teachers may abuse the ability to bring a gun to school, Gaetz pointed out that there have been no instances of a school shooting sprouting from an unwell volunteer in the guardian program. This school safety initiative allows trained and vetted school employees to carry concealed weapons on K-12 campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of the parade of terribles have happened that the opponents to the guardian program tried to advance,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile none of that has happened, people have been killed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What else is in the bill?
Gaetz isn\u2019t this first Florida lawmaker to try to promote campus carry. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, then-Sen. Randy Fine brought his all-encompassing campus carry bill to its first committee \u2014 unlike Gaetz\u2019s, Fine\u2019s bill would have allowed all students to carry \u2014 but it was voted down. Fine later left to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetz said that the heart of his bill is hardening Florida\u2019s state colleges and universities by requiring better threat assessments, better responses to threats, and better communications between first responders and faculty in emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SB 896 would allow university employees, faculty, and students who are also working for a college to either openly carry or carry conceal weapons on campus. It also would expand the school guardian program to the university level and create an offense of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetz said his measure also would require universities to ensure all classroom doors lock during an emergency \u2014 especially after FSU students discovered during the April school shooting that their doors could not lock. He estimates that around $60 million will end up being appropriated for the effort, in line with what Gov. Ron DeSantis requested in his budget proposal last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An identical bill has been filed in the House by Rep. Michelle Salzman.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFlorida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.\n\n\n\n

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Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, is sponsoring the legislation, entitled \u201cSchool Safety,\u201d to address security concerns in higher education. If passed, the bill would remove college campuses as gun-free zones \u2014 marking a significant shift in how Florida handles gun issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1975,"featured_media":348839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-12-16T22:14:51Z","apple_news_api_id":"065ef314-157c-4396-97df-089949063efc","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-12-16T22:17:12Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ABl7zFBV8Q5aX3wiZSQY-_A","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"hidden","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,24],"tags":[77655,2328,3462,6337],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[135769],"newspack_collection_section":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[127],"class_list":["post-348838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-news","category-news","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-don-gaetz","tag-florida-open-carry","tag-fsu","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Florida bill would allow professors, TAs to open carry on campus - Creative Loafing Tampa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sen. 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They've already redrawn the state's Congressional maps, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News & Views"","block_context":{"text":"News & Views","link":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348838"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348842,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348838\/revisions\/348842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348838"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=348838"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=348838"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=348838"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=348838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}