FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The minimum age of a person to buy a rifle and other long guns in Florida could be lowered from age 21 to age 18, reversing legislation enacted after Parkland’s school shooting.
Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, who filed the bill, said the current law is “an infringement” on young people ages 18 to 20. “An 18-year-old can serve in the military,” he argued.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the Florida Legislature, voted 12-5 on Monday afternoon in Tallahassee in favor of the new legislation.
Federal law already prohibited the sale of handguns to people under 21. But the state law on rifles and long guns was passed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High on Valentine’s Day 2018 that killed 17 students and staff.
The bill, if it continues on course and eventually to the governor’s desk, would reverse that law passed in 2018. Shooter Nikolas Cruz was 19 years old at the time.
Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, D-St. Petersburg, said when there’s “shooting after school shooting ... there are children that are dying.”
“I find it hard to wrap my head around it,” she said, saying she wished state legislators had “the same energy” getting young people to vote, to read and allowing them to be “merely able to exist.”
She said in response to the argument about how young people serve in the military or law enforcement, “You know what’s interesting ... about young people serving in the military? There are rules, restrictions, supervision that happens.”
Public speakers were divided. Opponents of the bill argued that a population more prone to violence shouldn’t have access to more weapons. But supporters said young people old enough to vote should also be able to purchase a rifle.
One man said his 17-year-old son was punished for what somebody else did across the state, and young people should be able to “defend themselves and hunt like any other adult.” And a woman accused lawmakers of “kowtowing to the NRA” and said the state of Florida wasn’t interested in personal liberties.
The debate comes up now after earlier this month a federal appeals court upheld a 2018 Florida law that prevents sales of rifles and other long guns to people under age 21.
The National Rifle Association filed a federal lawsuit, arguing in part that the law imposes an unconstitutional restriction on the Second Amendment rights of people under 21, but a federal judge rejected the challenge in 2021 and the appeal was also rejected.
“Even though 18- to 20-year-olds now account for less than 4% of the population, they are responsible for more than 15% of homicide and manslaughter arrests,” the appeals court wrote in its opinion earlier this month, citing the U.S. Department of Justice.
The NRA had vowed this wasn’t over.
“The NRA also looks forward to the Florida Legislature addressing the issue and removing this unconstitutional ban,” a spokeswoman said earlier this month in response to the appeals court decision.
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