Gov. DeSantis signs expansion to armed "school guardian program," for colleges and university campuses

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Friday to expand the armed "school guardian" program to Florida's colleges and universities.

The law builds on changes made in the public-school system after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

DeSantis maintained that the guardian program deters potential perpetrators  and will make colleges and universities "safer."

"They don't know whether they're going to be able to face resistance, so that they try to gravitate toward gun free areas, where they know basically people are going to be sitting ducks," DeSantis said during an event at the Idea Center in Miami. "The guardian, it puts the bad guys on the defense. They don't know who is going to be able to offer them resistance."

The new law (HB 757) requires institutions to train faculty to detect and respond to mental health issues, adopt an active assailant response plan, adopt post-incident family reunification plans and imposes felony charges for discharging a weapon within 1,000 feet of a campus. 

Also, records related to a student's behavior, including threat assessment reports and student psychological evaluations, must transfer when the individual moves from K-12 school to a state college or university.

The bill was crafted after a shooting during the 2025 legislative session, where a student killed two people and wounded five others at Florida State University.