TALLAHASSEE – Nearly eight years after a gunman murdered 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Florida House on Thursday passed a bill that would lower the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18.
The Republican-controlled House, which passed the bill (HB 133) in a 74-37 vote, has tried repeatedly in recent years to reverse a law approved after the Parkland shooting that raised the minimum age to 21. The Senate refused to go along.
House Majority Leader Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican who is sponsoring this year’s bill, said the Parkland shooting was a “tragedy.” But he said lowering the minimum gun-buying age to 18 is about Second Amendment rights.
“The legislation seeks to restore the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Sirois said.
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But Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Parkland Democrat who was the city’s mayor at the time of the mass shooting, said the law that increased the minimum age to 21 has “stood the test of time” and that it has been found constitutional by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This bill today is going to hurt families,” Hunschofsky said.
Lawmakers included the higher gun-buying age in a broad school safety law that passed after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz used a semi-automatic rifle to kill Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and faculty members on Feb. 14, 2018. Federal law has long set the minimum age at 21 for handgun purchases.
The House also passed bills in 2023, 2024 and 2025 to lower the minimum age to 18 for purchasing rifles and other long guns. The approval of this year’s bill came on the third day of the annual legislative session — but a similar proposal has not been filed in the Senate.
When asked Tuesday about the issue, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, noted that last year, senators “were not supportive of it. I have not heard anything different this year.”
“We are clearly a responsible gun-law state and we have a lot of freedoms here with the Second Amendment, which I’m proud of,” Albritton said. “But as it relates to that bill, it will be determined by the (committee) chairs in the Senate and the Senate appetite for such a bill as a whole.”
Thursday’s House vote was largely along party lines. One Democrat, Jose Alvarez of Kissimmee, voted for the bill. Six Republicans — Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach, Linda Chaney of St. Pete Beach, Anne Gerwig of Wellington, Peggy Gossett-Seidman of Highland Beach, Chip LaMarca of Lighthouse Point and Susan Valdes of Tampa — voted against it.
The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit in 2018 challenging the constitutionality of the higher gun-buying age. A federal district judge and the Atlanta-based appeals court upheld the law, and the NRA has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the issue.
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While the law prevents people under 21 from buying guns such as rifles and shotguns, they can receive the firearms as gifts.
In defending the law Thursday, Democrats cited scientific findings about people’s brains not being fully developed by age 21 and said young adults are more apt to act impulsively. Rep. RaShon Young, D-Orlando, said those issues have not changed since the 2018 law passed.
“What has changed is our willingness to look away,” Young said of supporters of lowering the minimum age.
But Sirois pointed to 18-year-olds being able to do such things as serve in the military and serve on juries. He said there is “no joy” in seeking to reverse the law passed after the Parkland massacre but pointed to constitutional rights.
“Should government diminish the rights of law-abiding people in response to criminals?” Sirois asked.
— News Service staff writer Jim Turner contributed to this report.