TALLAHASSEE – A invoice that would lower the least age from 21 to 18 to acquire rifles and shotguns was accredited Tuesday by a Home panel, but its potential remains in question as the proposal has not been filed in the Senate.
The bill, authorised by the Republican-controlled Home Criminal Justice Subcommittee, would reverse an age necessity that was integrated in a university basic safety law handed following the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Significant School in Parkland.
The Home permitted a invoice final calendar year to lower the minimum age from 21 to 18, but the Senate did not choose up the evaluate.
“I will not make my choices on what costs I want to operate primarily based on what the Senate is accomplishing,” mentioned GOP bill sponsor Bobby Payne. “I make those people conclusions based on what I truly feel is section of my essential perception, (and) section of my essential beliefs is on issues these types of as constitutional rights.”
Federal legislation prohibits people today below 21 from getting handguns.
“It feels like this is a messaging invoice simply because I will not know if it is going on the other facet (in the Senate) and if it’s likely to get to the governor,” claimed Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner. “And if that is certainly what this is, I would say this is not the information we want to ship to Floridians and the condition of Florida.”
Democratic Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis requested, “What has transformed due to the fact 2018?”
The Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, accepted the legislation immediately after Nikolas Cruz, then 19, killed 17 college students and faculty users at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Cruz, who has been sentenced to life in prison in the murders, made use of a semi-automated rifle to have out the assault.
The legislation drew a lawful challenge from the Countrywide Rifle Association, which contends that it violates 2nd Modification rights. A federal district choose upheld the age restriction, but the situation continues to be pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Questioned about the proposal during a marketing campaign quit Tuesday in Tallahassee, Scott said he was proud of the laws and, “I help what we passed.”
