Florida House Backs Repeal of Rifle Purchase Age Limit

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. - A Florida House panel voted to repeal the minimum age requirement to purchase a rifle that was imposed after a 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17.   

The Criminal Justice subcommittee debated Nov. 18 and took public testimony for nearly an hour before voting 11–4 along party lines to advance the bill (HB 133) by House Majority Leader Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island.

But the bill's fate is questionable at best. It has no Senate companion and there's no sign the other chamber has an appetite to hear it should it pass the House.

Sirois said the measure aligns gun rights for 18-year-olds with other constitutional rights such as voting, serving on a jury, getting elected to certain offices and military service.

"Allowing an 18-year-old the right to go out and purchase a long gun to defend themselves and their family and their property is wholly in keeping with the rights and privileges I have outlined," Sirois said.

Rep. Tyler Sirois stands for the National Anthem during opening day of the Florida legislative session on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

Rep. Jessica Baker, R-Jacksonville, said the proposal corrects an inequity in Florida law where a teen can receive a rifle as a gift but otherwise cannot legally possess one.

"So we're saying you can defend yourself, but only if you have parents who can afford to give you a long gun. Eighteen to 20 year-olds are legally adults. They work full time, they pay taxes, they serve in the military. If it's legal for them to own the gun, they should be able to legally buy the gun," Baker said.

The measure – coming less than a year after a 20-year-old Florida State University student opened fire on campus, killing two and injuring six others – continues a trend of loosening gun ownership restrictions in Florida.  

Opponents call it 'recipe for disaster

In the last two years, Second Amendment advocates persuaded the Florida Legislature to allow concealed carry without a permit, and in September an appeals court declared the state ban on open carry unconstitutional.

Mix those developments with this latest bill and Florida has "a recipe for a disaster," said Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, in a discussion of the proposal before the meeting.

Bartleman has served as an assistant principal in Liberty City, and was a Broward School Board member the year of the Parkland shooting. She was elected to the Florida House in 2020.   

 “There’s no reason an 18-year-old needs an AR 15,” Bartleman said.  

This is the fourth attempt by the House to repeal the minimum age requirement since it was approved seven years ago by the Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott. 

Bartleman asked Sirois why he continues to file the bill over the objections of Parkland survivors and why he can't find a state senator to carry a companion bill. "It's an exercise in futility," Bartleman said.

Sirois did not respond and later brushed off questions about his bill from reporters. The Senate President’s office declined to comment when asked if the chamber would consider the measure were it to pass the House. 

Democrats on the committee protested that the bill would put firearms in the hands of teenagers. The U.S. Department of Justice has found 18 -24 year-olds have the highest firearm homicide rate, and six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. since 2018 were perpetrated by individuals aged 21 or younger.

"We have a duty to protect our communities, not expand access to those three times more likely to commit homicide," said Susan Gill of Tallahassee's Moms Demand Action chapter, after the committee advanced the measure.

Shooting survivors call bill 'slap in the face

Samantha Mason, the 20-year-old president of the FSU chapter of the gun safety group Students Demand Action, called it tone deaf for Sirois to introduce the proposal so close in time to the April shooting at FSU.

After experiencing a lockdown on her high school campus and then a shooting at her college campus, she said the bill feels like "a slap in the face" to the FSU and Parkland survivors.  

“This bill does nothing to prevent another tragedy. It makes another one more likely by allowing guns to be in the hands of school-aged youth," Mason said.  

But the measure has momentum: Gov. Ron DeSantis supports a repeal, and Attorney General James Uthmeier declined to defend the requirement in a federal appeals court challenge by the National Rifle Association.  

A staff analysis of the proposal found it may have a positive economic impact by making more individuals eligible to purchase firearms and ammunition.  

The bill's next stop is the House Judiciary Committee. The 2026 regular session of the Florida Legislature begins Jan. 13.