Florida Senate Installs Panic Buttons At Capital After Passing Relaxed Gun Law

Thanks to a recently souped-up Florida law that now prevents police from trying to keep permitted, concealed weapons from entering the State Capitol, security forces in the building have installed panic buttons on every Florida Senator's phone, according to a Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau report.

The panic buttons have also been installed on the phones of all Senate staff. When pushed, an officer in the Senate security force can instantly listen to goings-on in the alerting office or respond, if necessary, according to the report.

Several Senators said the move is the direct result of an October 1 law that added penalties to a generally ignored statute preventing city and county governments from enforcing gun laws stricter than the state's.

“Instead of reversing what we did, we’re resorting to panic buttons,” Weston's Nan Rich, the Senate Democratic Leader, told the Times/Herald bureau. “It’s unnerving. My staff is very nervous.”

In many cases, the sudden enforcement of the law made for awkward or nonsensical regulations. Guns are now allowed at parades and other public events -- even those inside government buildings, if carried by a person with a concealed weapons permit -- but knives remain banned. In the Capitol, firearms are now banned only in House and Senate chambers and committee rooms, according to the report.

"We can restrict having clubs, flame throwers and hand grenades, but when it comes to firearms, we can't restrict them," Kraig Conn, legislative counsel for the Florida League of Cities, told the Associated Press in October.

Though a recent state employee safety course given by Capitol Police included both an update on the new law's "impact on the Capitol" and instruction on responding to shooter situation, the report said, Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R-Merrit Island) denied the panic buttons were the result of the new law. Haridolpolos said they had always been a feature of the phone system installed five years ago, but coincidentally only just activated.