After the tragic Parkland mass shooting in 2018, Florida lawmakers raised the age to purchase a long gun in Florida to 21. You already have to be 21 to buy a handgun, so this almost entirely removes 18-20 year-olds’ ability to buy a gun for self-defense. Now, some Republican lawmakers are now fighting to roll back that change and restore young Floridians constitutional rights.
A group just introduced the Minimum Age for Firearm Purchase or Transfer Act, which would lower the age to purchase a firearm in Florida back down to 18. The bill is being pushed by state Representatives Bobby Payne, Tyler Sirois, Randy Fine, Ralph Massullo, and Bob Rommel.
This push deserves widespread support. Depriving 18, 19, and 20-year-old adults of their constitutional right to self-defense was always an immoral restriction that did not actually make us any safer.
Think about it like this. We never would accept laws that say, make the right to free speech only apply to those age 25 and up. We would never accept legislation allowing police to unreasonably search and seize from those under 23. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that the Second Amendment establishes an individual constitutional right to keep and bear arms-so how the heck can that right possibly be taken away from an entire demographic of legal adults simply based on their age? Read more…
