After FSU shooting, outrage erupts over Florida Legislature's inaction on gun regulations

Yahoo

22-04-2025

Frustration and disappointment with the Florida Legislature's willingness to repeal gun regulations inspired by the 2018 Parkland school shooting are coming to the surface following the April 17 shooting at the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee.
Red flags are being waved at the state Capitol by university students, and Democratic lawmakers over the Legislature's refusal to consider measures restricting access to firearms while advancing proposals to make it easier to buy and sell them.
The FSU shooting was the fifth mass shooting in Florida this year. According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings have claimed 10 lives in the state in the first four months of the year, and 36 in the past two years.
Meanwhile, the Florida House has approved a bill to lower the age of gun purchases, and the Senate has advanced a proposal to create what appears to be the longest sales tax holiday in history for firearms and ammunition purchases.
Just three weeks before the FSU shooting, the Florida House voted to repeal a prohibition approved after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre to prevent people younger than 21-years of age from buying rifles and other long guns.
And less than 48 hours before the FSU shooting, a Senate committee approved a four-month-long sales tax holiday for guns and ammunition.
Twenty-year-old Jayden D'Onofrio asked lawmakers to think about what they were about to do when they considered a provision in a 95-page local option tax bill that creates a Second Amendment tax cut.
'You all are giving a sale tax cut to potential violent people on the most dangerous things they could access – guns and ammunition,' said D'Onofrio, a Tallahassee State College sophomore majoring in political science.
D'Onofrio and nine other TSC and FSU students, members of a group called Florida's Future Leaders, testified against the tax cut to no avail.
A tape of the meeting shows chair Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami, nodding seemingly in agreement while the students spoke. Avila thanked them for their remarks and told them his office door is always open.
Former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, told the group 'You make some really good points.'
But when Avila and Passidomo both voted for the bill, D'Onofrio found their comments 'worse than patronizing.'
'You cannot possibly justify telling a group of people who are affected by your legislation the most, because we've lived it, that they are absolutely making great points and then go on and do nothing about it,' D'Onofrio said.
The Weston native was in the 7th grade when the Parkland shooting took place 15 minutes from his middle school, and now he lives two blocks from FSU.
'They didn't even muddy it down. They railroaded it to the next committee on a party-line vote. I find it all disgusting,' D'Onofrio said.
In contrast to the clear sailing the tax cut and repeal of the age restriction for rifles have enjoyed, there are five proposals to make guns and ammunition less accessible that haven't had one committee hearing that D'Onofrio intends to use to test Avila's open door policy.
They include bills that would repeal preemption of gun regulations to the state and allow local governments to pass their own gun regulations. There are also proposals to mandate the safe storage of firearms and more extensive background checks for purchases.
And lawmakers could debate a Gun Ownership Act, which sets requirements for all sales and transfers of firearms, and Jaime's Law, named after a Parkland victim and requires background checks use the FBI National Instant Background Check System to screen purchasers.
All the proposals were filed by Democrats. None have gotten a hearing this session.
'This happens year after year. Our caucus files good, common sense gun laws that the Republican majority refuses to give a hearing. If we have the time to rename the Gulf of Mexico, we have the time to talk about one of the leading causes of deaths in our country,' said Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, the House Democratic Leader.
In April, Florida became the first state to implement President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the body of water bordering the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba the Gulf of America.
Outnumbered 86 - 33, Driskell and the Democrats have been unable to stop House Republicans from trying to repeal a minimum age requirement of 21 to purchase a rifle and long guns.
The restriction was among a series of gun control proposals enacted following the Parkland shooting when U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was governor.
There were three mass shootings in Florida during the Scott administration, the 2018 Parkland massacre, along with one in 2016 at the Pulse Nightclub where 49 died, and the 2014 shooting at FSU's Strozier Library.
'What I tried to do as governor was to work on legislation that we know can make us safe,' Scott said after visiting hospitalized students recovering from America's latest school shooting.
Florida is one of eight states that requires buyers of rifles and long guns to be 21, and the NRA immediately filed a lawsuit, claiming the restriction was unconstitutional.
Once the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the NRA challenge, the Florida House passed a repeal, which the Florida Senate did not approve last year. In March, the House again passed a repeal, which the Senate has yet to consider.
'I believe in the legislation we passed. We worked hard to get that passed, but every Legislature gets to decide what they want to do,' Scott said.
Other than expressing sorrow and condolences, Republican lawmakers have said little about gun legislation still pending in the House and Senate chambers.
The volume on the issue may rise as the legislative session enters its final phase, which often sees a blitz of legislation pass both chambers.
On Wednesday, volunteers with the Florida chapters of Students Demand Action, along with Team Enough and state lawmakers, will march from Florida State University to the State Capitol to call on lawmakers to do more to protect students from gun violence.
'This tragedy is not a political statement; however, it becomes a political issue when poor policy fails to stop a completely preventable loss of life‚' FSU's College Democrats President Madalyn Propst said in a statement.
Here is the status of gun bills filed for the 2025 legislative session. Lawmakers are scheduled to finish the 60-day gathering May 2, but could go well past that amid inter-party feuding between the House and governor.
HB 65: Requires firearm sales or transfers to be conducted through licensed dealer and mandates stricter requirements for storage of firearms.
SB 238/ HB 6003: Gun Regulation Preemption is a perennial bill filed by Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton to repeal the preemption of local gun regulations to the state. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing
SB 252/HB 1096: The 'Responsible Gun Ownership Act'; requires background checks on all persons involved in a firearm sale or other transfer and increases criminal penalties.
SB 254/1621: Defines the term 'machine gun' and ties bump-fire stock violations to the Criminal Punishment Code.
SB 256/HB 53: Creates Jaime's Law, named for a Marjory Stoneman Douglas 17-year-old victim, would require more extensive background checks for firearms purchases.
SB 1234/HB 6013: Repeal prohibitions on bump stocks, a modification that enables a rifle to be rapid fire.
SB 814/HB 31: Would have allowed concealed weapons on college and university campuses. Failed in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when Sen. Illeana Garcia, R-Miami, joined with three Democrats to reject the proposal by former Senator and now Congressman Randy Fine.
HB 759: Lowers the minimum age for purchasing a rifle from 21 to 18. Passed the House and awaits action by the Senate, where it appears to have stalled amid concerns by the Senate President.
SB 490/ HB 383: Allows Law Enforcement Officers, Correctional Officers, Correctional Probation Officers, and Military Servicemembers to carry concealed weapons while off duty passed the House and awaits senate action.
SB 1664: A provision in an omnibus local tax option proposal would create a four-month sales tax holiday for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Has passed two committees and is one stop from the Senate floor.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [e-mail] and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU shooting sparks outcry for gun reform in Florida Legislature