Florida lawmakers were debating gun policy. Does FSU shooting change things?

Just around the corner from where lawmakers gathered Thursday at the Florida Capitol, sirens began to sound.

News of an active shooter at Florida State University rippled through the Capitol soon afterward.

The shooting would leave two dead and six others wounded. Law enforcement confirmed a 20-year-old suspect used a service revolver belonging to his mother, a longtime Leon County sheriff’s deputy.

Unlike in 2018, when 17 students at a high school in Parkland were killed in a school shooting while lawmakers were in session, the attack at FSU’s campus seems unlikely to affect legislation this year.

Several proposals to weaken Florida gun laws this session, including those favored by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would expand access, had failed to gain traction before the shooting Thursday. And new legislation in response to Thursday’s deadly incident appears just as unlikely this year.

Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, chairperson of the Senate’s criminal justice committee, said it would be inappropriate to legislate before understanding the full situation.

“Anybody who’s proposing a solution right now from any side needs to sit back and wait‚” Martin said.

And Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, has said this isn’t a time for politics.

Here’s what to know about the gun legislation discussed this year and where it stands.

Rifle buying age

For the third year in a row, the Florida House passed a law that would allow 18-year-olds to buy a rifle.

Lawmakers raised the rifle buying age to 21 in 2018 after the Parkland shooting. But in the years since, some Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have called the change unconstitutional and pushed to undo it.

But the bill faced opposition in the Florida Senate under former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.

This year, Albritton, a National Rifle Association lifetime member, also hasn’t embraced the push to undo the law.

Albritton became teary when recounting touring the high school building in Parkland where students were shot and killed.

Though he has declined to explicitly rule out the change passing in the Senate, this upcoming Tuesday is the last day for committee meetings, according to a Senate spokesperson.

The bills that would allow the rifle purchasing age to be lowered are not on the agenda and are stalled.

Campus carry

Florida law currently bans people from carrying firearms on college or university campuses, whether the firearm is concealed or not.

This year, Republican Sen. Randy Fine, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, put forward a bill that would have let students have guns on campus.

But in an extremely unusual move, the bill didn’t get past its first committee hearing after receiving more no votes than it did yes votes.

One Republican, Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, joined three Democrats in voting against the bill.

On social media since the FSU shooting, Fine thanked law enforcement for their quick response, but said he wondered if the “outcome would have been different” if students were able to be armed.

Fine criticized Garcia for voting against the bill, too, calling her a “so-called” Republican. But even if she hadn’t voted against the bill, the policy change was unlikely to move forward. The legislation did not have a House companion.

Some members of Florida’s higher education community have also expressed opposition to guns on campus, including former FSU President John Trasher.

On social media, Garcia, responding to Fine, said his “suggestion that students should defend themselves by carrying firearms on campus, along with the idea that a bill lacking a house companion would have made any real difference, is misguided.”

Red flag laws and open carry

This year, DeSantis has also said he wants the state’s red flag law to be repealed. The red flag law also was part of the post-Parkland bill package.

The law’s goal is to allow courts to temporarily disarm people who pose a risk to themselves or others.

DeSantis said he thought the law violates people’s rights and put the burden on the individual to prove they’re not a danger. But like some of his other requests for gun rule change, lawmakers are unlikely to take away the red flag tool this year or next.

The statute creating the red flag law hasn’t been changed since it was passed in 2018. Law enforcement officers across the state have filed nearly 10,000 petitions since mid-2022 and have supported it as a public safety tool.

No legislation filed this year attempted to undo the law. Both Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, also voted for the 2018 bill that brought the red flag law into place.

And despite DeSantis’ support for it, lawmakers this year also aren’t considering any legislation that would allow the open carrying of firearms.