Days after a mass shooting at nearby Florida State University, the state Senate appears poised to scuttle a controversial proposal that would allow people under age 21 to buy rifles and other long guns.
Senate Rules Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said Monday her committee won’t take up a House measure (HB 759) that would lower the minimum age to 18.
Passidomo said the decision against taking up the House bill was made before the shooting Thursday at Florida State University that killed two people and injured six others. The alleged gunman, the stepson of a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy, was also shot as police officers quickly responded to the scene.
After a 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people, the Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott approved a number of changes, including increasing the minimum age for long-gun purchases to 21. Federal law has long set the minimum age at 21 for handgun purchases.
“I haven’t changed my position in how many years,” Passidomo, a former Senate president, said. “I’ve been clear from day one that I’m not going to replace Parkland. I was there.”
The Rules Committee plays a key role in determining which bills make it to the Senate floor. The legislative session is scheduled to end May 2.
The House on March 26 voted 78-34 to repeal the law that increased the minimum age for long-gun purchases to 21. If the Senate does not take up the bill, this would be the third year in a row that the House has approved such measures with the Senate not passing them.
Passidomo was the Senate president during the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions.
Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Democrat who was the mayor of Parkland at the time of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, said she was cautiously optimistic that the repeal measure wouldn’t advance.
“I hope that it's done for this session,” Hunschofsky told reporters on Monday. “But as we know, nothing is done until we sine die (an expression for adjourning the session).”
Bills filed in the Senate as counterparts to the House measure have not been heard in committees. Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, has not taken a clear public position when asked about whether he supports repealing the gun-age law.
After the law passed in 2018, the National Rifle Association quickly launched a constitutional challenge. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March ruled 8-4 against the NRA.
But the issue is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who took office in February, has said he would not defend the law.
