Florida Legislature rejects weapons ban

The Florida state House on Tuesday rejected a ban on many semiautomatic guns (such as the AR-15 rifle allegedly used by Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 people) and large capacity magazines as dozens of survivors of last week's school shooting headed to the state Capitol to turn their grief into political action. Lawmakers voted down a motion to consider the ban during a session that opened with a prayer for the 17 people killed by a former student last Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The vote in the Republican-dominated body was 71-36. Much of the Republican argument is that it isn’t about guns themselves, rather better laws need to be in place so that mental health and criminal conviction records that legally bar individuals from buying weapons are consistently sent to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Many students and staff who survived the Florida school shooting departed earlier Tuesday for the Capitol, where they hope to speak with lawmakers Wednesday about school safety and gun control. The pressure grows in Washington to do something on guns. President Trump indicated he's open to strengthening background checks and directed the attorney general to look into banning bump stocks, which help semiautomatic weapons fire like automatics. Democratic lawmakers often call for tighter controls on gun purchases, while Republicans often oppose them, saying they would violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution sanctioning gun ownership.

In Other News Coming into the stadium for the final time in the women's cross-country Team Sprint, Sweden, USA and Norway were so tightly packed together, they were stepping on each other's skis and having to avoid flailing ski poles. Swede Stina Nilsson led the way and looked to have gold sewn up but, while Norway's Maiken Falla completely tied up, Team USA's Jessica Diggins burst past Nilsson on the outside to take gold by just half a ski length. It's the USA women's first ever cross-country medal. The Syrian government has stepped up the airstrikes on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, with deadly results. At least 250 civilians have been killed by the shelling in the past 48 hours, according to a human rights group. Many of the dead are women and children. A new study suggests drinking a lot can increase your risk for dementia. The study, published in the journal Lancet Public Health, looked at more than 1 million adult patients released from hospitals in France who were diagnosed with dementia. Researchers determined that out of that group, about 16.5% of the men and 4% of the women had also abused alcohol. The link was really strong for those with early-onset dementia, diagnosed when the patient is younger than 65. Past research has shown that heavy alcohol use can have a toxic effect on the brain and lead to long-term structural damage.