The emotional fault lines that have divided the state since the school shooting in Parkland were on display in the Florida Senate on Saturday as lawmakers passionately rejected an assault weapons ban and moved forward with a voluntary plan to arm teachers in schools, Tampa Bay Times reports.
The votes came in a rare weekend floor session as the Senate spent the day on legislation aimed at responding to the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The bill, SB 7026, would inject millions of dollars into mental health and school safety programs that lawmakers have long ignored and do something unseen in Florida for decades: impose new limits on gun access.
"If anything has come out of that tragedy, it is the realization that we have not done enough to this point comprehensively to have mechanisms in place … to prevent this from occurring," said Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, as he introduced a new draft of the Senate plan.
The Senate had planned to take up its version of the legislation Friday, but with dozens of amendments drafted by Democrats, Senate leaders decided to spend nearly eight hours Saturday debating the issue. Galvano also revised the proposal to include some components sought by House leaders.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure Monday and send it to the House, where leaders there hope to approve it in time for it to reach the governor's desk before the session ends on March 9.
Despite the additional time, Democrats accomplished little in their efforts to modify the plan produced by conservative Republicans.
The Senate rejected nearly four dozen Democratic amendments — from banning assault weapons, creating a registry for guns, allowing local governments to pass stronger gun laws and requiring background checks for gun purchases outside of the state, to prohibiting the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.
The assault weapons ban was rejected 20-17 with two Republicans, Sen. Anitere Flores of Miami and Rene Garcia of Hialeah, joining all 15 Democrats to support the ban. Republican Sen. Dana Young of Tampa missed the vote.