Committee advances bill to lower gun buying age to 18, moving it to House floor

A bill seeking to repeal portions of post-Parkland legislation and lower the minimum age to buy a gun from 21 to 18 is heading to the House floor.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-7 to advance HB 133, which would change the 2018 law raising the minimum wage to 21. The Legislature passed the measure after the Parkland school shooting, when a 19-year-old former student killed 17 students and staff with an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon on Valentine’s Day 2018.

But as Florida has shifted even further rightward and Republicans who backed the 2018 law have hit term limits and exited the Legislature, there has been movement from some current GOP lawmakers to revisit those 2018 restrictions.

“I wasn’t a member of the Legislature when that tragedy occurred. My view is this is the correct public policy to pursue to restore the rights of law-abiding 18-year-olds,” said Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican who sponsored the bill.

Tuesday’s vote fell down party lines except for Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel, a former Democrat, voting against it.

The bill brought forth passionate debate from young activists.

“If a 19-year-old cannot be trusted with a Bud Light, maybe they shouldn’t be trusted with an AR-15,” said Matthew Grocholske.

But setting the minimum age at 21 is “hypocritical” now that Florida is an open carry state, argued Luis Valdes of Gun Owners of America.

“It comes down to a very simple thing,” Valdes said. “Adults at 18 years old have the right to keep and bear arms.”

Most people who spoke during Tuesday’s hearing were against HB 133.

“HB 133 would undo one of the few protections created after the Parkland massacre,” said Luna Reitz-Neto, a Sarasota resident against the bill. “Here’s what it means in real life. Young adults between 18 and 20 are the group most likely to experience accidental shootings, impulsive behavior, and suicide attempts involving firearms. Their brains are not even fully developed.”

It’s not the first time the Legislature has attempted to undo parts of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

Democratic Rep. Dan Daley, a former Coral Springs City Commissioner, arrived at the scene within 30 minutes of the Parkland shooting in 2018.

“You run for a local office to fix potholes,” said Daley, a Stoneman Douglas High graduate. “And there I was on the side of the street hugging somebody that had just lost their kid.”

Daley argued the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act was passed with “overwhelmingly bipartisan support.”

“We got it right,” Daley said, arguing it was important for school safety to uphold the law.

At the same meeting, the Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to provide more wrongful death protections for a fetus. 

“It’s not lost on me, ladies and gentlemen, the two bills that are on the agenda today,” Daley said. “This Legislature puts more emphasis on a life in a womb than it does in any other point in that kid’s life.”