By Matt Lammens Photo Credit: AP Photo/Phil Sears
The 2024 Florida Legislative Session introduced several bills regarding gun access, some of which were received as more controversial than others. Three bills that failed to pass during the session were House Bill 1223 (HB 1223), which sought to lower the legal age to buy a long gun from 21 to 18, as well as Committee Substitute/House Bill 17 (CS/HB 17) and Senate Bill 1124 (SB 1124), both regarding the three-day mandatory waiting period for firearm purchases. All three bills sought to repeal two of the main components passed as part of the gun control agenda that came about after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on February 14, 2018.
Gun Laws Before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shooting
Before 2018, the legal age to purchase a long gun (guns with a long barrel such as rifles and shotguns) in Florida was 18 years of age and a handgun was 21 years of age. Under this law, Nikolas Cruz, the perpetrator of the shooting in Parkland that left 17 people dead, lawfully purchased an AR-15-style rifle when he was 18. He used that weapon to conduct the school shooting when he was 19, as was confirmed by Peter J. Forcelli, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in Miami in 2018. Law enforcement also told ABC News reporters that they believed Cruz “had access to 10 firearms, all long guns,” seven of which he was believed to have purchased himself and the other three being ones he could access. “An estimated 3,000 people [gathered] at the Old Capitol” demanding reformed gun laws after the tragic loss of 17 people in Parkland.
Committee Substitute/Senate Bill 7026 (SB 7026), better known as the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” received enough legislative support to pass and was signed into law by Governor Rick Scott on March 9, 2018. The act changed a multitude of laws relating to guns. In particular, it amended Chapter 790 (Weapons and Firearms) and Section 065 (Sale and Delivery of Firearms) under Florida Statute Title XLVI to make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to buy a long gun. The act also changed the wording of Section 0655 to impose a mandatory 3-day waiting period, not including weekends or holidays, on the purchase of any firearm or until a background check is completed, whichever occurs later. This differed from its previous language, which only implemented the waiting period on handgun purchases and did not specify if a handgun could be obtained before the three-day waiting period if the background check was already completed.
HB1223
When the Florida Policy Survey from the University of South Florida was published in July 2022, both the law setting the minimum age to buy any firearm at 21 and the mandatory waiting period were supported by approximately 59% of Floridians across the political spectrum. Nonetheless, in 2023 Republican lawmakers Rep. Bobby Payne of District 20 (containing Putnam and parts of Clay, Marion, and St. Johns counties) and Rep. Tyler Sirois of District 31 (part of Brevard County) proposed House Bill 1543 (HB 1543). HB 1543 aimed to lower the legal age to buy a long gun back to 18. While the bill passed the Florida House with 69 yeas to 36 nays, it died in the Senate. A new series of attempts to lower the long gun purchasing age occurred this year, as Sirois and Payne reintroduced the same bill during the 2024 Legislative Session, titled HB 1223. Facing a similar fate to its 2023 predecessor, the bill passed the House, receiving 76 yeas and 35 nays this time, indicating an increase in House member support, but it, again, died in the Senate. Although both bills followed a similar path, the same policy may be proposed again in future sessions because members of the House may now have reason to believe it may consistently pass in their chamber.
CS/HB 17 and SB1124
The 2024 Legislative Session was the first to see an attempt to undo key features of the mandatory waiting period on gun purchases passed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in 2018. CS/HB 17 was sponsored by Republican representative Dr. Joel Rudman of District 3 (containing parts of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties) and was reported favorably by the Criminal Justice Subcommittee. The bill would have kept a three-day waiting period to purchase a firearm in place. However, unlike the current law, under which a purchaser cannot access a gun until after a three-day waiting period and a background check is completed, the bill would have changed the wording to allow the buyer to obtain the firearm after the three-day period even if the background check was not completed.
An analysis of the bill from the Criminal Justice Subcommittee explains how the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) would be required to report the weapon to the ATF if the purchaser later failed the background check after they obtained the gun. The ATF would then be assigned to “retrieve” the firearm from illegal possession. Given the FDLE reports “98% of all transactions are resolved [and approved] within minutes of being received” and “96% of all transactions are approved,” such a bill would allow qualified buyers who do not fall into that 98% but rather find themselves waiting more than three days for their background check to be completed to obtain their firearm in a timelier manner. Conversely, the same reality would apply to unqualified buyers. In the end, CS/HB 17 passed the House with a vote of 78 yeas to 36 nays, but the bill died in the Senate like HB 1223.
CS/HB 17 was not the only proposed bill aiming to change the mandatory waiting period when purchasing a firearm during the 2024 session. Republican Senator Johnathan Martin of District 33 in Lee County proposed SB 1124, titled “Mandatory Waiting Period for Handgun Purchases,” which would have reverted the mandatory waiting period to apply only to handguns, just as it was before 2018. The bill, however, died in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and was never voted on by the whole Senate.
Data and Viewpoints
Regarding HB 1223, a fact sheet from Everytown for Gun Safety (a non-profit organization that aims to prevent gun violence) produced in June of 2023 explains how “data show[s] that 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun homicides at triple the rate of adults 21 and older.” Such evidence supports arguments made by proponents of the current age limit law and could explain why the bill died in the Senate. Likewise, a study conducted by Harvard researchers in 2017 found waiting periods to create a “cooling off” period among buyers which “reduce[s] gun homicides by roughly 17%.” While this study is over five years old, it reinforces the viewpoints of some opponents to CS/HB 17 and/or SB 1124.
Some Floridians view the matter differently and cite their constitutional rights under the Second Amendment in favor of new legislation. In discussing his support for HB 1223, Rep. Payne explained he was pushing the bill “for the protection of those who are 18 to 21 years old, and those in rural areas like [his] area that like to use rifles and long guns.” Chris Smith, the owner of the Gulf Coast Guns store in Milton, Florida, argued in favor of the bill to lawmakers by claiming “there’s no other constitutional right that we have raised to 21,” and “the fact that we don’t allow 18-year-olds to have their constitutional right, yet we allow them to vote in our elections, is kind of absurd.”
In committee meetings this year, opponents to HB 1223 spoke to lawmakers and described how the age limit has impacted Florida compared to states that have not increased the age limit. Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was a victim of the Parkland shooting in 2018, told the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee in a meeting on January 30, 2024 that “we have no further to look than Texas, which has had two school shootings after Parkland because they did not do what Florida did; they didn’t make the hard choice, they didn’t come together to help solve the problems.” The shootings in Texas he referred to included the Santa Fe High School shooting on May 18, 2018 in which the 17-year-old shooter used his father’s weapons to conduct the attack, resulting in the death of 10 people, and the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when 21 people were killed by an 18-year-old who legally obtained his AR-15 style rifle just days ahead of the attack. Montalto also noted that the law in Florida has “helped prevent another school shooting in the state,” possibly alluding to the fact that Florida has not had a school shooting at the magnitude of Parkland since 2018.
The controversy over CS/HB 17 and SB 1124 had outspoken proponents and opponents discussing potential changes to the waiting period. When discussing his proposed bill, Rep. Rudman argued the current law can cause unnecessary trouble for aspiring gun owners and claimed to have been given a list “of over 50 names of people…through no fault of their own… [who] had been waiting two years to pass their background check.” If his bill became law, these people could access their purchased firearms after the three day waiting period. The bill was also supported by Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman of Escambia County, who argued the bill was “definitely necessary,” as she said that she had “heard of many occasions where people have not been able to get their firearms because their background checks were taking days, weeks, and even months.” Conversely, Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky of Broward County argued against CS/HB 17, saying “the idea of giving someone a firearm when the background check process hasn’t been completed” is “honestly kind of reckless.”
Despite the various viewpoints relating to the topic, the 2024 Legislative Session in Florida indicated that similar bills to reverse the post-Parkland policy changes may be introduced in future sessions, especially since some of their predecessors have repeatedly fared well in the Florida House of Representatives. Consequently, Floridians will likely keep a close eye on gun bills proposed in future sessions, as sections of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act continue to come into question.