In a fervent appeal to Governor Ron DeSantis, survivors of school shootings from Florida have urged the state to maintain its current firearm age restrictions. Twenty-eight students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) and Florida State University (FSU) released a letter on Monday, emphasizing the necessity of upholding the minimum age requirement of 21 for purchasing firearms. This comes in response to legislative efforts, notably House Bill 759, which passed Florida’s House and seeks to reduce the age to 18. The bill now awaits deliberation in the state Senate.
- A tragic incident at FSU, where a 20-year-old student fatally shot two people and injured six others, has intensified the calls for stringent gun control measures.
- Survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting have been vocal about preventing similar tragedies, as reflected in their statement: “What we went through, we made it our mission to ensure this could never happen again.”
The students also implored Governor DeSantis to oppose Senate Bill 814, proposing the allowance of carrying firearms on college campuses, warning that failure to veto such measures would betray the memories of those lost to gun violence at educational institutions.
Despite these appeals, there has been skepticism regarding the legal viability of age restrictions. The US Supreme Court declined to review lower court decisions that found age-based firearm possession laws unconstitutional, building on earlier rulings by appellate courts that invalidated similar restrictions in Pennsylvania and at the federal level.
Governor DeSantis’s record includes endorsing pro-gun legislation, such as a 2023 statute permitting permitless concealed carry in public spaces for eligible gun owners. In the wake of these legislative changes, reports by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions have underscored that firearms continue to be the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States.