Two people were killed and six others were injured when a 20-year-old man opened fire on the Florida State University campus on Thursday, according to authorities.
The alleged shooter, who used his mother’s old service firearm in the shooting, was revealed by authorities to be an FSU student and the son of a sheriff’s officer.
But a little more than a mile away from FSU, the Florida legislature has been debating repealing a gun restriction measure that was put in place following the 2018 Parkland massacre, which claimed the lives of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was a freshman at Marjory Stoneman and one of the victims of the shooting, said, “Coming home after learning about our daughter’s murder and explaining that to her little brother is one of the hardest things my wife and I ever had to do.”
His late daughter’s classmates are among the survivors of that tragedy who are now enrolled at FSU, Montalto said.
“After living through the MSD shooting in 2018, I never thought it would hit close to home again,” FSU law student Josh Gallagher stated on social media Thursday. “Then I’m in the FSU Law Library and hear on alarm: active shooter on campus. No matter your politics, we need to meet—and something has to change. Prayers to the victims and families.”
In the weeks following the tragedy, Florida enacted comprehensive gun control laws that, among other things, made it illegal for most individuals under 21 to purchase rifles and other long firearms. At the time, Republican state leaders took the lead on the measure.
However, seven years later, there is a new drive to remove it from the books, and this time, Republican legislators are leading the charge in the opposite direction.
“It wasn’t a very good idea,” stated Luis Valdes of Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group. “And lawmakers have even admitted that they were emotionally high strung, and they made mistakes.”
With the majority of Republicans supporting it, the repeal of some of the legislation passed the Florida House of Representatives last month in a largely party-line vote.
However, it looks like the Florida Senate will thwart the attempt. In 2023 and 2024, similar repeal attempts were unsuccessful as well. In 2023, the statute was likewise upheld by a federal appeals court.
People under 21 are already prohibited from purchasing firearms under federal law.
However, under Florida law, individuals under the age of 21 are still permitted to receive firearms as presents, even though the state law prohibits them from buying rifles and other long guns.
“You’re an adult at 18,” Valdes stated. “If they’re going to make the argument that we need to raise the age, then raise it for voting, raise it for getting into contracts, raise it for getting into being married.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat and a graduate of Marjory Stoneman, helped enact the original statute while serving as a state representative after Parkland. The notion that the legislation was motivated by passion makes him tense.
“Well, you know, they didn’t attend any of the funerals on any of these parents,” Moskowitz stated. “If they want to see emotion, go watch a parent eulogize their 14 year old as they’re putting them in a wooden box.”
