TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida lawmakers on Tuesday took a first step to drop the purchase age of firearms back down to 18.
The bill cleared its first committee in the Florida House.
It’s a rollback of a law approved after the Parkland shooting that may not have all the support it needs to happen.
After that horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, legislators approved a sweeping gun reform.
“Every student in Florida has a right to learn in a safe environment," Gov. Rick Scott said at the time.
Among the provisions, raising the minimum age to buy a firearm in Florida from 18 to 21.
But now, there’s an effort to reverse course with HB 1223.
If approved, buying firearms returns to 18 in Florida, though federal law would keep handguns at 21, outside of private sales.
“Restoring the rights of young adults to purchase a long gun for— not only self-defense but for sporting, is very important in my rural area," Republic Rep. Bobby Payne of Ocala said.
The House sponsor said Tuesday his effort is to restore access to what he considers a vital constitutional right.
"It’s important for those individuals to have their rights restored," Payne said. "The age of majority is 18."
Plenty of others disagree, including prominent Republicans.
That includes Scott, who now is a U.S. senator.
"We had that shooting, we had Pulse and we had the (Fort Lauderdale) airport shooting," Scott told reporters. "Your heart goes out to these families. We passed historic legislation that I’m proud that we passed. As I travel around the country I see that Florida schools are clearly safer."
And even if the bill clears the Florida House, it faces major issues in the state Senate.
The upper chamber lacks a version of the bill, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican, has said previously she’s opposed to the change.
“We don’t have it in the Senate,” she said. “Nobody filed it in the Senate, so there’s no bill to support.”
Staff said Passidomo’s opposition hasn’t softened in the interim, meaning the bill might be dead on arrival in the upper chamber, which would prevent it from reaching the governor and getting signed into law.
While the future looks uncertain, there is still the entire month of February for legislation.
Sometimes bills like this can be used as a bargaining chip when the chambers negotiate.
So you never know what might happen until they gavel out in March.
