Florida House backs measure to lower age to buy rifles and long guns from 21 to 18

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida House passed a measure on Friday that would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18 to buy rifles and other “long” guns. This vote would scrap a high-profile change passed after a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Lawmakers included the gun restriction in a sweeping 2018 school-safety package after Nikolas Cruz, then 19, used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 students and faculty members and injure 17 others. Federal law already barred people under 21 from buying handguns.

RELATED: Duval schools tightening security at middle, high schools on 5th anniversary of Parkland shooting

During the debate on the plan to lower the age on Friday, House bill sponsor Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, said the measure “corrects the wrong we did in 2018.” Payne argued that the bill (HB 1543) would leave intact other provisions of the 2018 law that addressed mental health and school safety.

But Democrats fiercely opposed lifting the age restriction, attributing it to helping the state avoid a repeat of the mass shooting in Broward County.

State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Democrat who was the mayor of Parkland at the time of the shooting, pleaded with her colleagues to keep the age restriction in place. She called the 2018 law a national “gold standard” for school safety.

“With a week remaining in the 2023 legislative session, the measure faces an uncertain future. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, has expressed opposition to the proposal. “I’ll see it when it comes over,” Passidomo told reporters prior to the House’s 69-36 vote Friday.

Supporters of the bill have argued, in part, that the prohibition on people under 21 buying long guns violates the constitutional rights of young adults. The Republican-controlled Legislature’s 2018 decision was highly unusual in a state that had expanded gun rights over decades.

RELATED: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bill to carry concealed guns without a permit

The National Rifle Association immediately filed a challenge in federal court, arguing that the law violated the Second Amendment.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in 2021 upheld the constitutionality of the law. Walker said he was following legal precedent, though he also described the case as falling “squarely in the middle of a constitutional no man’s land.”

The NRA appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court in March upheld the law. The NRA has asked the full court to reconsider the ruling.

It remains to be seen whether the Senate will approve the measure, as Senate President Kathleen Passidomo has expressed opposition to the proposal.

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