TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gun rights advocates have fought to overturn Florida laws by people under the age of 21 since the day they were signed in 2018 after the shooting at Parkland School, one of the Parkland School’s shootings, one of the deadliest mass murders in the United States.
With the new leadership of the Republican-controlled Capitol in Florida, conservative lawmakers seem to have the best chance of persuading their colleagues to roll back the law over the years. The bill to reduce the state’s gun acquisition age to 18 “will ensure that all adult citizens of Florida are given full revisability,” state Rep. Michelle Zazman said Wednesday as the measures she sponsored cleared the first committee stop in the House.
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Here’s what you need to know about the bill:
Why did gun laws change after Parkland’s shooting?
The law passed after an extraordinary lobbying by survivors and 17 families killed in the Parkland shootings conducted by a former student who could legally purchase guns under state law at age 19.
The day after the February 14th massacre, survivors of the victims and their families descended on the Capitol and called on lawmakers who were in the middle of a regular session to take action. Some legislative leaders traveled to crime scenes and saw the classroom slaughter with their own eyes.
A few weeks after the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, GOV at the time. Rick Scott has signed a package of gun safety measures surrounded by Parkland families, including a provision that raises the age of gun purchases between the ages of 18 and 21.
Within hours, the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit to challenge the law. The dispute is still unfolding in federal courts.
Is Florida going to change gun laws?
Florida has been on the frontier expanding gun rights for a long time. However, gun control supporters, and some major Republicans, have resisted rollbacks of restrictions.
The measure is supported by Florida State Speakers Daniel Perez and Gov. Ron DeSantis. If an 18-year-old is mature enough to risk the lives he serves in the military abroad, the governor says he should have the right to buy a gun.
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“They can’t even buy rifles to go home and go hunting,” DeSantis told reporters. “Are you an adult?”
The measure has historically faced more resistance in the state Senate. Republican Ben Albritton, the new president of the Chamber of Commerce, has coincided with law enforcement officials when opposing other gun restrictions rollbacks, but says he is considering lowering the age of guns.
“I’m thinking about that,” Albritton said about the proposal earlier this month. “The most important thing I don’t want to do is make mistakes.”
Who opposes lowering the age of buying guns?
The Parkland shooting left lasting impact on schools throughout the state, galvanizing Florida activists and elected officials onto a new generation of activists.
“Did you forget the pain in Parkland?” asked Fiona Shannon, a female voter Seminole County League volunteer who testified against the bill on Wednesday.
Democrat Robin Bartleman, a member of the county’s school board, home to Parkland at the time of the shooting, called the bill a “slap in the face” to families who fought for the law.
“We owed these families not to retreat,” Bartleman said. “I can’t do this. I’m wrong.”
For the past two years, then-religious President Kathleen Pasidomo, who was a Republican, has revealed that lowering her age with a gun is a “non-star” in her room. The bill was passed in full house during the last two sessions, but no companion bill was introduced in the Senate.
What are Florida lawmakers suggest now?
House and Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation that lowers the minimum age to buy guns to 18.
Once the measure passes, Floridians over the age of 18 can purchase long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, from federally licensed sellers or private sales. Under federal law, people under the age of 21 are prohibited from purchasing handguns from licensed dealers.
In January, a US court of appeals opposed federal law that there must be 21 young adults to purchase a handgun, and found it violated the second amendment.
___Kate Payne is a legional member of the Associated Press/Reports’ American State University News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit, national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on infiltrated issues.
