Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., on Tuesday called for quick passage of an anti-school-violence bill that focuses on better threat assessment and reporting rather than gun control.
The Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and its House companion, led by Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., is up for a vote this week, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The senators were joined in Washington by student Kyle Kashuv of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — the Parkland, Florida, school where gunman Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an assault rifle Feb. 14, killing 17 people.
Kashuv has differed from other Parkland students who have demanded more strict gun controls, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
"I truly believe if this act had been in place a month ago, Parkland wouldn't have happened," Kashuv said, the news outlet reported.
Rubio posted a summary of the measure earlier this month.
"We just want to get it done," Rubio said Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Times reported. "It's not the end of the debate, obviously. You've got to take one step before you take the second."
The legislation provides Justice Department grants for schools to train people to identify warning signs of troubled students, improve school security infrastructure, including an anonymous reporting system, and created threat assessment and crisis intervention teams, as well as facilitates coordination between schools and local law enforcement, according to Rubio's summary.
It would authorize $75 million for this fiscal year, and $100 million annually for the next 10 years, the news outlet reported.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.