House Bill 1223, called the “Minimum Age for Firearm Purchase or Transfer,” cleared the lower chamber on a 76-35 vote. It proceeds to the state Senate, where approval would send it on to the governor’s desk for his expected signature.
The proposal by Republican Reps. Bobby Payne and Tyler Sirois reads, “An act relating to the minimum age for firearm purchase or transfer…reducing the minimum age at which a person may purchase a firearm and the age of purchasers to which specified licensees are prohibited from selling or transferring a firearm.”
The law, if passed, would erase part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. This was enacted shortly after the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland in what gun rights advocates believed to be an emotional response to the tragedy.
Nikolas Cruz, a former student, carried out a lengthy attack across the three floors of the building that left 17 students dead and another 17 injured.
This was one of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history. Cruz pleaded guilty three years later and is currently serving a life sentence.
Until the change following the Parkland murders, it was legal in Florida for law-abiding young adults to purchase a long gun when they turned 18.
The National Rifle Association filed suit against the state on the grounds that the constitutional rights of these young people were denied.
A separate proposal, HB 1181, was filed earlier this year and attempts to inflict more stringent punishments on minors caught with a firearm. What is currently a first-degree misdemeanor would become a first-degree felony.
