Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 15 signed into law a school safety bill that allows trained guardians to carry guns on Florida’s college and university campuses.
The governor signed the legislation (HB 757) at a bill signing event in Miami with Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas. Also among those attending was Ryan Petty, chair of the State Board of Education; his daughter Alaina was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Broward County.
The bill by Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, is a major expansion of the state’s school guardian program and was written in response to the 2025 Florida State University shooting in which two were killed and six injured.
Salzman was a FSU graduate at the time of the shooting and consulted with university administrators, other higher education officials, professors and students in crafting the measure.
“I asked them what they wanted to see and what they believed the biggest issues were,” Salzman has said.
She wrote a bill to extend the existing K-12 school guardian program created after the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting to public colleges and universities. It also requires new safety protocols, mental‑health training for staff, and an emergency response plan.
By allowing professors and staff to be armed, the legislation marks the most significant shift in campus-security since the 2018 Stoneman Douglas shooting when 14 were killed.
“I think the guardian puts the bad guys on the defense,” DeSantis said with a giant “Supporting Safe Schools” sign behind him. “They don’t know who is gonna be able to offer them resistance.”
What’s in the bill?
Salzman described the measure as a shooting prevention and response plan. It blends mental health training with elements of armed-staff and “school marshal” programs found in other states.
Participation in the guardian program is optional; each school will decide if it wants to enroll certain employees in a training program to carry firearms on campus.
County sheriffs are required to provide or coordinate firearm and de-escalation training for schools, and to screen candidates psychologically and to conduct the annual re-qualification for guardians.
There are also a host of new safety requirements for universities and colleges that include:
“The No. 1 goal is prevention and response,” Salzman said.
The legislation also creates new criminal penalties, including making it an offense to discharge a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.
The pros and cons
Supporters argue the bill strengthens prevention efforts and fills security gaps on campuses where law‑enforcement staffing may be limited. They say trained guardians could reduce response times during an attack.
Critics, however, warn that introducing more armed personnel could create confusion during emergencies and increase the risk of accidental harm. Some university leaders have also raised questions about how the program will function on large, open campuses.
Salzman acknowledges the concerns and expects lawmakers to revisit the issue next legislative session.
“We’re going to come back next year after spending a whole year working on implementation and evaluating it— and ask, what do we like? What do we not like? How can we do better?” Salzman said.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gov. Ron DeSantis signs off on school guardians for universities
Reporting by James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
