Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said his bill to end "swatting" follows an incident last month where police showed up to his home after someone called 911 claiming a shooting had occurred.
"What somebody did is they called to say that they were holding somebody hostage in my house," Scott said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report." "...Their goal is that law enforcement swarms your house, and you are inside and that either scares the living daylight out of you or if you have weapons, you defend yourself and somebody gets hurt. So, my bill would say if anybody gets hurt you're going to jail, you're going to suffer severe consequences,"
The bill, titled "Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act," was introduced Tuesday with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
The legislation would impose strict penalties for swatting, including up to 20 years in prison if someone is seriously hurt because of a swatting attack.
"I hope to God that nobody gets hurt. But that's their whole goal, that somebody gets shot," Scott said.
The FBI, Scott added, should be putting more resources into stopping "swatting."
"If this was happening to a bunch of Democrats, I think they would put more effort into it," Scott said. "We ought to be able to figure out how to track this and go after these people and put them in jail."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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