Legislation on bump stocks, devices that use the recoil of a semi-automatic rifle so that it fires at near-automatic speed, hasn’t gotten any consideration at the Capitol this year.

That includes a pair of bills (SB 1234, HB 6013) to repeal Florida’s ban on them and another legislative couplet to hike penalties for their use (SB 254, HB 1621).

With most committee action winding down, bills that haven’t been heard in committee yet are likely dead.

Florida’s bump stock ban went into effect March 9, 2018, less than a month after the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history. It was part of a sweeping gun safety package called the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act,” which also added a three-day waiting period for gun purchases and hiked the age limit to buy long rifles to 21.

President Donald Trump’s first administration imposed a national ban on bump stocks nine months later. The move, while close to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, was more in response to the October 2017 massacre in Las Vegas, where a shooter used the device. The high school shooter did not.

But on June 14, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration did not follow federal law in implementing the ban and that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) had overstepped its authority.

That ruling inspired Palm City Republican Rep. Toby Overdorf to file HB 6013, his first bill of the 2025 Session. He told Florida Politics in February that the state’s law should comport with federal law.

“I would like for state law to comply with federal law,” he said, adding, “I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. This is an infringement upon the Second Amendment.”

He added that Gov. Ron DeSantis has advocated for reversing the ban, including during his brief presidential run.

Of note, while the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns and therefore couldn’t be regulated as such by the ATF, the ruling did not prohibit states or federal legislators from making laws about bump stocks.

Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Scott Polsky, who sponsored SB 254, said she’s been dismayed seeing her GOP colleagues in the Legislature repeatedly try to roll back gun safety laws.

“I don’t understand this backwards trend we’re seeing,” she said. “As the Senator of Parkland, I want to do everything I can to keep that good work going and go further to keep Floridians safe.”

If passed, SB 254 or HB 1621 would expand the definition of “machine gun” in Florida Statutes to include any firearm modified to fire at a rate that mimics an automatic weapon.

Possession of a machine gun in Florida is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison for a first offense and $10,000 in fines.

Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain sponsored SB 1234. Homestead Democratic Rep. Kevin Chambliss filed HB 1621.

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Two bills meant to give property owners a clear route to compensation for damage done to their homes by blast mining are likely to die without a single hearing in either chamber of the Legislature.

The measures (SB 486, HB 303) are the most recent attempts by Hialeah Gardens Sen. Bryan Ávila and Miami Lakes Rep. Tom Fabricio to address years of complaints from residents, especially in Miami-Dade County, that nearby limestone quarry activities are hurting their homes.

But with the House ending most of its subcommittee meetings, there is little expectation that the companion proposals will advance this Session.

If passed, the bills would have guaranteed homeowners the ability to seek payment through a complaint filed with the Division of Administrative Hearings for damage caused by limestone mining.

The bills would also have provided that this state-level proceeding would preempt local claims processes.

There is a difference between the two similar proposals. Ávila’s three-page bill established the general setup for property owners to seek recompense. Fabricio’s five-page bill did that too, but also included standards of proof, limited claims to properties within three miles of a blasting site and provided that the Legislature could appropriate funds yearly to ensure payments.

For years, residents have complained that limestone blast mining damages their homes, and Fabricio made the issue a top campaign priority when he ran for office in 2020.

Lawmakers have worked to address the problem. In 2019, Republican Education Commissioner Manny Díaz Jr. and Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, then a Senator and Representative, respectively, passed legislation requiring the State Fire Marshal to set ground vibration limits and mandate that mines use seismographs to monitor explosions and ensure compliance. The following year, Ávila, Díaz and Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones successfully sponsored another measure giving the Fire Marshal exclusive authority to regulate and adopt construction mining standards. The bill also established the Miami-Dade Mining Pilot Program to monitor and report each blast and require the Division of State Fire Marshal to hire a seismologist to oversee the program.

Today, a roughly one-page section of Florida Statutes covers the governing laws for blast mining statewide.

But Ávila and Fabricio maintain that more needs to be done. Last year, they again filed bills to reduce the strength of allowable mining explosions. Neither bill was heard.

House lawmakers also heard testimony from residents and experts on the issue. Industry professionals maintained that while quarry explosions may cause cosmetic damage to nearby buildings, including small cracks in drywall and other relatively weak materials, they are not strong enough to cause structural damage at the currently allowed levels.

Residents and members of a Miami-Dade advisory board tasked with analyzing the problem disputed that assertion, arguing that any damage, including photographed cracks in the concrete, floors, and roofs of their homes, is unacceptable.

Fabricio said at the time that his goal was to strike a compromise that would enable mining companies to continue excavating vital construction and road materials, while also delivering a peaceful and fair arrangement to his constituents.

“Our view is pretty simple. We believe that the limestone quarry blasting limits in the state are generally fine,” he said. “However, in situations where we are about 1,000 yards from a residential community, where the homes are shaking every day and causing damage to the homes, it’s a problem.”

Limestone from rock quarries is used in virtually every construction project in Florida, which consumes more than 130 million tons of the material each year, according to Ananth Prasad, President of the Florida Builders Association.

More than a third of that supply comes from Miami-Dade, some of whose county and city governments have formed advisory committees to examine and make recommendations on how to improve matters.

According to Fabricio’s office, six mining companies operating at eight quarries in northwest Miami-Dade detonate tons of explosive materials every week to dislodge rocks referred to as “aggregate” from underground.

Since 1996, White Rock Quarries, the largest mining company operating in Miami-Dade County, has made more than $480,000 in in-state donations to Florida lawmakers. Ávila is among its biggest beneficiaries, receiving $37,500 from the company between 2014 and 2024.

In total, nearly half of Florida’s 40 sitting Senators and a fifth of its Representatives have accepted contributions from the company.

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Expectant mothers sentenced to prison will have to keep waiting for better considerations in Florida’s criminal justice system as legislation to pause their incarceration until they give birth is likely to die without a hearing.

Leaders in the Legislature shut out twin bills (SB 206, HB 145) that would enable judges to stay the prison terms of pregnant defendants for up to 12 weeks so they could give birth, nurse and bond with their babies.

It would also guarantee every female arrestee the right to a pregnancy test, upon request, within 72 hours of their apprehension.

The legislation is called “Ava’s Law” after a newborn who died in August 2021 after being born in an Alachua County jail. Erica Thompson, the baby’s mother, said she called for help as she went into premature labor before giving birth alone in her cell without medical aid.

The incident triggered protests outside the facility and drew the attention of Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, who retitled and reworked legislation he first filed in 2021 to honor the child’s memory.

Jones previously passed the “Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act,” which mandated that menstrual products be provided free in Florida correctional facilities, and the “Tammy Jackson Act” to prohibit solitary confinement for pregnant prisoners and require that prisoners who go into labor be transported to a medical facility.

“The bill is really about providing mothers with the treatment and care that’s necessary to deliver their child safely before they (serve) their sentence,” Jones told WPLG Local 10’s Glenna Milberg when discussing “Ava’s Law” in 2023.

“All we’re trying to do is ensure that once the mother has the child that they receive the necessary care that has been recommended by physicians that she needs, because at the end of the day it’s really about making sure the baby is protected.”

Tampa Rep. Diane Hart sponsored the legislation in the House with co-sponsorship support from Fort Lauderdale Rep. Darryl Hart, a fellow Democrat.

Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor, and Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos G. Smith co-sponsored Jones’ bill in the upper chamber.

About 4% of women are pregnant when jailed, according to a 2019 study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

“The fact that nobody had collected this data before signals just how much this population is neglected,” the study’s author, Dr. Carolyn Sufrin of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told The Associated Press.

Last year, California lawmakers passed bills that provide the protections contemplated in “Ava’s Law” and the “Tammy Jackson Act.”

SB 206 was to have first been taken up by the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, while HB 145 was first referred to the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee. The panels’ respective Chairs, Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin and Hillsborough County Republican Rep. Danny Alvarez, declined to place the bills on an agenda.

“Ava’s Law” passed unanimously in the Senate in 2022 before dying without consideration in the House. The following year, it passed with overwhelming approval in the House but saw no Senate support.

Unless something changes, 2025 will be the second consecutive year in which both the Senate and House versions of the legislation were completely ignored.

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