| March 7th, 2018

Taking the Law in Your Own Hands

By: journeymagazine

By| Lauren Coleman

People from all over the state of Florida and a handful from Georgia came to Tallahassee a for pro-second amendment rally to protest some parts of the proposal SB 7026.

“CS/SB 7026: Public Safety; Citing this act as the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” that each sheriff may establish a Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program and appoint certain volunteer school employees as school guardians” This is only a small portion that people are fighting for or against.

The rally was held in front the Florida Historic Capitol Building. People of all ages came to support one man’s dream. That man is Matt Johnson who was tired of the media’s negative view of how guns were portrayed.

Johnson put together this rally via Facebook events. The reason for having this “movement” was very spur of the moment after having a conversation with his friend. It was the proposal and its amendments that made this rally come to life.

“You hardly ever see any rallies (like this) so I got tired of it. They are trying to push unconstitutional bills and decided to see what I can do. So, this word of mouth movement spread and spread, and it makes me proud,” said Johnson.  

The proposal speaks about support staff and other faculty members voluntarily going through background checks and training for them to be armed while on school grounds. The sheriffs’ office and school faculty, principals and school board members will be the only ones to know which of the staff members are armed.  

Bob White, a running candidate for Governor, believes that the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program will be great for preventing other tragedies like Parkland. White also believes that students will not have access to the guns that selective faculty will have.

“I do not believe they (students) will because no one is going to know in the first place. It’s going to kept secret. No one will know who they are,” said White.

As others are understandable on the fence on whether staff/faculty should have this sort of training. Doris Rutland Breaux says that Georgia already has a similar law just like this in place.

“I felt the same way when Georgia lawmakers where trying to push this similar bill. I was working at a bar and I could not carry to work; the bar was always getting robbed. My husband was able to carry legally, and he would always wait for me to get off work, I felt safe,” said Breaux.

When put in different situations, different outcomes will appear. Will students feel safe in a learning environment knowing that there might be a gun in the classroom?

Currently, the SB 7026 has pass through the Senate and will be going to the House for its next phase.