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Tag: Florida gun bill

  • Groups call on Ben Albritton to block bill lowering gun-buying age to 18

    A dozen gun-violence prevention groups are calling upon Florida Senate President Ben Albritton to once again reject a proposal from the Florida House to lower the age to purchase a long gun from 21 to 18 years old.

    A measure (HB 133) that would repeal the 2018 law that raised the legal age for such purchases to 21 has already passed two committees in the Florida House and is now up for a vote in the full House of Representatives when the Legislature kicks off the 2026 session next month.

    That regulation is part of a package of gun safety reforms enacted by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2018. The bipartisan vote approving those measures came just weeks after a 19-year-old legally purchased an AR-15 and murdered 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

    The Florida House has passed similars measures over the past three legislative sessions, but each time they have died in the Florida Senate. And with four weeks left before the 2026 legislative session commences, no Senate companion measure has yet been filed.

    “President Albritton, we urge you to use your authority as Senate President to prevent HB 133 from becoming law,” reads a portion of the letter. “Remember the priorities made after our state’s darkest day. Remember those who buried their loved ones because a teenager could access a gun. Honor the bipartisan commitment lawmakers made in 2018: never again. Refuse to file a companion bill to HB 133, as you have done in previous years.”

    Among the groups signing the letter are March For Our Lives, Brady Florida, the League of Women Voters Florida, and the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

    “Young people in Florida deserve to grow up without wondering whether the teenager sitting next to them can legally buy a weapon of war,” said March for Our Lives executive director and Parkland survivor Jackie Corin in a statement. “We call on state leaders to block HB 133 and to honor the promises they made to our communities and to the lives already lost.”

    Although the Senate has shown no inclination in the past to approve the measure, gun-safety advocates are concerned right now that the Senate might swallow the idea in a tradeoff with the House that to curb the open carrying of firearms.

    A three-judge panel of the Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled in September that the state’s 1987 law banning open carry in Florida was unconstitutional. Attorney General James Uthmeier immediately declared that open carry was now the law in the state, but that change hasn’t been put into statute yet. Second Amendment groups have warned that the Legislature should not add any restrictive regulations on open carry when and if they enact a bill implementing the policy change.

    “Interesting question,” Albritton responded on Dec. 8 when asked by a reporter if there were negotiations between the House and Senate about such a trade-off. “Not that I’m aware of.”

    Albritton is an NRA member who has disclosed that he has a concealed-weapons licence, but he has also said that he has been “profoundly” affected by getting to know the parents of one of the teenage victims of the Parkland shooting massacre.

    Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

    Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

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  • Bill that would allow teens to buy guns in Florida filed once again



    Credit: via Shutterstock

    A Florida House Republican has again filed legislation that would reduce the minimum to buy a firearm in the state from 21 to 18 years of age.

    The proposal (HB 133), sponsored by Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Brevard County Republican, has passed in the Florida House during the past three legislative sessions, but failed to advance in the Florida Senate. The existing law exempts law enforcement officers, correctional officers, or service members younger than 21.

    The Florida Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott raised the age for purchasing a firearm in 2018 as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public High School Safety Act, just weeks after the school shootings in Parkland that killed 17 people.

    The effort to restore the legal age for purchasing a firearm to 18 has been supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis and gained momentum this spring when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that he would not defend the law after a federal appeals court again upheld its constitutionality after it was challenged in federal court by the NRA.

    “If the NRA decides to seek further review at SCOTUS, I am directing my office not to defend this law,” Uthmeier said in March, not long after DeSantis appointed him to his office. “Men and women old enough to fight and die for our country should be able to purchase firearms to defend themselves and their families.”

    The NRA has subsequently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge to Florida’s law.

    Meanwhile, another federal appeals court — the Fifth Circuit — ruled in January that the federal law banning federal firearms licensees from selling handguns to individuals aged 18 to 20 is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

    Rejected in Florida Senate

    Again, the state Senate has consistently thwarted repeal — in 2023 and 2024 by then-President Kathleen Passidomo and earlier this year by sitting Senate President Ben Albritton.

    Second Amendment groups have been critical of those efforts, and they are speaking out now with concerns about what Albritton might do when it comes to an implementing bill that would make the open carrying of firearms legal in Florida statute.

    The state’s First District Court of Appeals ruled last month that the 1987 law banning open carry in Florida was unconstitutional, and Uthmeier declared five days later that, in light of that ruling, he was declaring that open carry is now the law of the state.

    However, speaking during a press conference at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office two weeks later, Uthmeier acknowledged that changing the law based on the court’s ruling was “not the cleanest situation and there’s likely cleanup that’s going to be needed by the Legislature.”

    In Tallahassee this week, Albritton told reporters “there are some questions” about the new policy, and that he was seeking advice from Florida sheriffs, whose political organization, the Florida Sheriffs Association, historically had opposed open carry.

    ‘Questions’ about open carry

    “There are some questions about the Capitol, specifically, about how well guns play in or would not play in, so the attorney general has given some guidance on this, so we’re contemplating all of that, and wanting to do what’s right for all Floridians. So, we’ll just continue to think it through. We’re again seeking input from various folks who have the expertise to help us understand and we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

    Luis Valdes, Florida state director for Gun Owners of America (GOA), told the Phoenix that the right to open carry has come from the judicial system, “not the Republican supermajority in the Legislature.”

    “GOA will fight tooth and nail to see this repeal passed,” Valdes said Friday. “But with the same leadership still in place, the battle against the RINOs in Tallahassee continues. We will continue with our simple message of NO COMPROMISE. We will fight to make sure all Floridians, 18 and up, can freely exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

    The issue of open carry in Florida made headlines this week when Publix, the largest supermarket chain in the state, declared that the company would comply with state law.

    “Treating customers with dignity and respect is a founding belief at Publix,” it said. “In any instance where a customer creates a threatening, erratic or dangerous shopping experience, whether they are openly carrying a firearm or not, we will engage local law enforcement to protect our customers and associates.”

    The new law also came into play on Thursday night in Tampa, when a former candidate for Tampa city council allegedly brandished a gun after getting into an argument with another person following a candidate forum for an election taking place later this month. No charges were filed in that incident.

    With additional reporting from Liv Caputo.

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    Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
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  • ‘I’m not worried about our schools’: Florida Republicans votes to lower minimum age to purchase AR-15s

    ‘I’m not worried about our schools’: Florida Republicans votes to lower minimum age to purchase AR-15s

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    While the issue has not moved forward in the Senate, the Florida House on Friday passed a controversial bill that would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18 to buy rifles and shotguns.

    The Republican-controlled House voted 76-35 along almost-straight party lines to pass the bill (HB 1223), which would reverse a decision that raised the minimum age after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.

    Federal law bars people under 21 from buying handguns. Democrats on Friday repeatedly cited the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting as they opposed the bill.

    Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, said lawmakers should not “renege” on a promise the Legislature made when it passed the higher minimum age as part of a broader school-safety bill.

    “Shame on us,” Bartleman said. “We told the citizens of Florida that we were going to protect them.”

    But bill sponsor Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, pointed to Second Amendment rights and people needing to defend themselves.

    “I’m not worried about our schools. Our schools are safe in Florida. We’ve heard it was the gold standard,” Payne said. “What I’m worried about is my kids, my grandkids and your kids that can’t defend themselves because we’re restricting their rights.”

    Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, has repeatedly said the Senate doesn’t have a similar bill, meaning the proposed age change will not pass during this year’s legislative session. Rep. Linda Chaney, R-St. Pete Beach, Rep. Chip LaMarca, R-Lighthouse Point, Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, and Rep. Cyndi Stevenson, R-Saint Johns, joined Democrats in voting against the bill Friday.

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    News Service of Florida

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