Florida's New Gun Control Law

As many folks know, this month the Florida legislature passed, and Governor Rick Scott signed, a new gun control law in response to a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Image source: www.thestreet.com/story/14488770/1/

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The new law establishes a waiting period of 3 days, or until a background check is conducted, with some exceptions (e.g., police officers, members of the military). It also raised the minimum age for buying a gun to 21 years old (up from 18 years); included provisions to allow school personnel to be armed; and banned bumpstock, even though no bumpstocks were used in the Parkland shooting. Bumpstock was used a few months earlier in a Las Vegas mass shooting. (For the record, a gun owner doesn't need a bumpstock to bump-fire, but that's another conversation.)

As the New York Times and other news outlets made clear, Florida's new law didn't cover other areas, such as banning specific types of guns (e.g., AR-15s), strengthening background checks, or banning so-called "high capacity" magazines that can hold upwards of 100 bullets. Gun owners will often complain that bans of magazines that hold a certain (high) number of bullets won't do much good, due to shooters simply being able to quickly reload -- as is shown here and here. Some of these points are outlined in this video by Colion Noir. The new law also didn't touch the issue of guns being left in and subsequently stolen from cars. 

Shortly after the new law went into effect, the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit to stop it. 

Will the new law be effective? Will it prevent future shootings and keep schools safer? As Pam Bondi of Florida's Office of the Attorney General wrote in a statement, the bill is "not perfect, and sadly it will not bring back the 17 lives lost in the horrific school shooting, but the safety of our children is not a political issue - it's simply the right thing to do."

Time will tell.