OREGON GOVERNOR SIGNS FIRST GUN LAW SINCE FLORIDA MASSACRE

By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A bill prohibiting domestic abusers and people under restraining orders from owning firearms became America's first new gun control law since the Feb. 14 Florida high school massacre.

"Well done Oregon," Democratic Gov. Kate Brown exclaimed Monday after signing the law on the steps of the state Capitol as some 200 people, including victims of domestic abuse and high school students, applauded and cheered.

State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, whose sister was fatally shot by her boyfriend, and Rep. Janeen Sollman, who fled her home as a child when her father was in a violent rage, hugged as they stood behind the governor.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people has created a wave of young anti-gun activists that has now reached cross-country into Oregon. Students from a high school in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego traveled 40 miles (65 kilometers) to stage a gun-control rally in the state capital, Salem, Monday morning.

"We are empowered youth," they chanted, while holding signs that read "End gun violence, our lives matter," and "Together we can end gun violence."

"We want to promote change. We're tired of the massive number of school shootings and the massive lack of action," said 15-year-old student Eli Counce.

Scarlett Scott-Buck, another student, said she came to protest "because I'm scared to attend my own school. And I'm here to be an activist for my rights — to live, my friends' rights to live, and my mother's fear."

Brown came down from her office to speak to the more than 100 students from Lakeridge High School in Lake Oswego, who sat on a broad stairway underneath the Capitol rotunda. She urged those who are 18 to register to vote.

"You want what?" she asked them.

"Change," they shouted in unison.

"How do you make change?" Brown asked.

"Vote!" the students shouted.

A couple of hours later, Brown met in her office with a dozen students from different schools. They agreed more needs to be done, including expanded access to mental health counseling to prevent unstable students from reaching the breaking point and committing violence.

But some students said gun control is also needed.

"Nationally, I think there needs to be things like assault rifle bans but also closing the gun-show loophole ... and making it so background checks aren't time limited," said student Eamon Walsh as he left the governor's office.

Such a time limit allowed Dylann Roof to buy the gun he's accused of using to kill nine churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. in 2015, Walsh noted.

The bill that Brown signed Monday closes a loophole in a 2015 law that excluded some abusers from the ban on buying or owning guns and ammunition, such as people who they don't live with the partner they're abusing or threatening, and those under restraining orders.

The measure was introduced before the Feb. 14, Florida shooting, but Brown emphasized the bloodshed as she lobbied the Oregon Legislature for passage and signed the bill.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

FLORIDA SENATORS PASS GUN RESTRICTIONS; HOUSE YET TO ACT

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, TERRY SPENCER and GARY FINEOUT, Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — It doesn't include the assault weapons ban that students who survived Florida's deadly school shooting demanded of lawmakers, but the state's Senate narrowly passed a bill that would create new restrictions on rifle sales and allow some teachers to carry guns in schools.

Meanwhile, prosecutors and lawyers for the victims are going to court to handle the aftermath of the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the court system.

Grand jurors are expected to begin hearing evidence on Tuesday against Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old former student who authorities say killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen others when he fired an AR-15 assault-style rifle inside the school.

And grievously injured student Anthony Borges, 15, and his family filed a letter of intent to sue the Broward Sheriff's Office and school resource officer as well as the school system and Marjory Stoneman Douglas principal to help recover the costs of his recovery. Attorney Alex Arreaza said in the Monday letter that Borges still can't walk and has "a great deal of difficulty performing rudimentary tasks for himself."

The 20-18 Senate vote Monday evening followed three hours of often emotional debate. Support and opposition crossed party lines, and it was clear many of those who voted for the bill weren't entirely happy with it. The bill now goes to the House, which has a similar bill awaiting consideration by the full chamber.

"Do I think this bill goes far enough? No! No, I don't!" said Democratic Sen. Lauren Book, who tearfully described visiting the school after the shooting.

Book also wanted a ban on assault-style rifles, like many of the students who traveled to the state Capitol, who asked lawmakers to do that and more to stop future mass shootings. But Book said she couldn't let the 60-day legislative session end Friday without doing something.

"My community was rocked. My school children were murdered in their classrooms. I cannot live with a choice to put party politics above an opportunity to get something done that inches us closer to the place I believe we should be as a state," she said. "This is the first step in saying never again."

Earlier Monday, families of the 17 people who died called on the state's Legislature to pass a bill they believe will improve school security.

Reading a statement outside Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Ryan Petty implored legislators to pass Gov. Rick Scott's proposal to add armed security guards, keep guns away from the mentally ill and improve mental health programs for at-risk teens. Scott also opposes arming teachers.

"We must be the last families to lose loved ones in a mass shooting at a school. This time must be different and we demand action," said Petty, reading from the group statement.

Petty's 14-year-old daughter, Alaina, was killed in the Feb. 14 shooting, along with 13 schoolmates and three staff members.

If just one more senator voted no, the bill would have died. Democrats didn't like the idea of letting teachers carry guns, even if the bill was amended to water down that proposed program. And many pro-gun rights Republicans didn't like the idea of raising the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and to create a waiting period on sales of the weapons.

The Senate amended its bill to limit which teachers could volunteer to go through law enforcement training and carry guns in schools. Any teacher who does nothing but work in a classroom would not be eligible, but teachers who perform other duties, such as serving as a coach, and other school employees could still participate. Other exceptions would be made for teachers who are current or former law enforcement officers, members of the military or who teach in a Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps program.

The bill would name the program for slain assistant football coach Aaron Feis, who has been hailed as a hero for shielding students during the school attack. Republican Sen. Bill Galvano said he got the approval of Feis' family to name the program for him.

Galvano, who took the lead on the bill, said he sees the bipartisan opposition as a good thing.

"You know what that means in my experience? That we've gotten somewhere," he said. "We're hitting nerves. We're going into areas that may not be our comfort zone."

The bill also would create new mental health programs for schools; improve communication between schools, law enforcement and state agencies; create a task force to review mistakes made during mass shootings nationally and recommend improvements in Florida law; and establish an anonymous tip line students and others can use to report threats to schools.

"This bill will make a difference now. When it becomes law, things will start changing," Galvano said. "We listened and we're trying. We're trying hard."

In addition to bringing our readers stories about education issues in America, we here at Hispanic Outlookfeature news articles on topics both related to and outside of the field of education on our website and in our social media.

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