Republican state lawmakers in Florida have filed two bills that would roll back gun control measures passed in the wake of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Even with a conservative supermajority in the Legislature, the measures are expected to face some resistance in the state Senate, where the chamber’s new president has expressed opposition to certain gun rights proposals.
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After a gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 others at the suburban Broward County high school in 2018, survivors of the Parkland massacre and family members of the victims descended on the state capitol in an extraordinary feat of advocacy, demanding action from the Republican-led legislature that had previously shunned gun control measures but nonetheless passed wide-ranging legislation just weeks after the shooting.
That included establishing a red flag law, which allows courts to take away guns from people who pose a danger to themselves or others, and a measure raising the age for buying a rifle from 18 to 21. Since then, gun rights advocates have been working to undo those provisions.
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“I look forward to our state once again earning the title of the Gunshine State, where citizens are no longer asked to trade God-given freedoms for a politician's empty promise of security,” Republican State Rep. Joel Rudman said in a statement announcing a bill he's sponsoring that would allow the open carry of firearms and repeal the red flag law.
Republican Sen. Randy Fine filed a measure that would roll back the law preventing people under the age of 21 from buying rifles.
Both Rudman and Fine are running in crowded primaries for seats in the U.S. House after President-elect Donald Trump nominated two congressmen from Florida to serve in his incoming administration.
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While the Florida House has advanced gun rights bills in the years since Parkland, leaders in the state Senate have blocked certain measures. Last month, newly-sworn in Senate President Ben Albritton told reporters that he doesn't support open carry and is skeptical of rolling back other measures passed in the wake of the 2018 shooting.
"I’ve supported law enforcement my entire life (...) And I stand with them today in opposition," Albritton said of open carry.
