TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House is again moving to pass a controversial bill that would lower the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18, though the Senate has not given any public sign that it is on board.
The Republican-controlled House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday voted 11-5 along party lines to approve the bill (HB 133), which now only needs to clear the House Judiciary Committee before it could go to the full House during the 2026 legislative session.
The bill would reverse a decision made by the Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott to increase the minimum gun-purchase age after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, then 19, used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 people at the school.
The House passed bills in 2023, 2024 and 2025 to lower the minimum age to 18, but the Senate did not go along. A Senate bill on the issue has not been filed for the 2026 session, which will start Jan. 13.
House Majority Leader Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican who is sponsoring the House bill, told subcommittee members that there is “still time for that conversation” with the Senate, where bills can be filed until the start of the session. Sirois declined to comment on the bill after the meeting.
Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, hasn’t publicly taken a stance on the issue. But such a bill would have to go through the Rules Committee, where Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, has said she isn’t going to repeal the 2018 legislation.
The National Rifle Association has challenged the constitutionality of the higher gun-purchasing age. The group lost in federal district and appellate courts and has an appeal pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, told lawmakers Tuesday that each time the bill is introduced it “reopens wounds” for Parkland survivors.
“Every year, that wound is healing and you rip it off. And I don’t really understand why when you know there’s not a Senate companion (bill),” said Bartleman, who was on the Broward County School Board in 2018.
“We were there the night of the shooting,” Bartleman added. “We went to the funerals. We dealt with the aftermath. But you continue to bring this up time and time again. And it just causes so much pain for these families.”
Rep. Mike Gottlieb, D-Davie, described teens as “impulsive” and said requiring them to wait three years to buy a long gun “is not a huge constitutional violation.”
“The rest of us have the right to be safe,” Gottlieb said.
Federal law has long set the minimum age at 21 for handgun purchases.
Rep. Jessica Baker, R-Jacksonville, said the state law created an “unfair situation.” While people under 21 cannot buy rifles or other long guns, they can receive them as gifts.
“if we believe in equality, how is it that a young adult from a well-off family can get a long gun as a gift and protect their home and their families, but a young adult with no family support cannot?” Baker said. “We’re basically saying you can defend yourself, but only if you have parents who can afford to give you a long gun.”
Luis Valdes, Florida State director at Gun Owners Of America, called the age-21 requirement “ludicrously hypocritical.”
“It is horrible that we have a Republican supermajority that campaigns on being pro-gun, but some of our Republican lawmakers actually vote against this bill or don’t even bring it up in other chambers,” Valdes said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who took office in February, has declined to defend the law at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This bill is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court with the support of the Florida attorney general, because now we have one that actually can read a case decision,” Eric Friday, general counsel for the Second Amendment group Florida Carry, said.