The Florida Senate has yet to take up a bill that would repeal the state’s ban on gun sales to adults younger than 21 even though the House overwhelmingly approved the legislation a couple of weeks ago, and the gun control lobby is taking full advantage of that inaction.
As we’ve previously reported, Senate President Ben Albritton has been hemming and hawing about the proposal for most of the session, and has yet to commit to even giving the bill a hearing in committee. There’s a very good chance that this proposal will fail to reach Ron DeSantis’s desk this session, despite the governor’s endorsement, and this week the anti-gunners descended on the state capitol in Tallahassee to urge Albritton and other Senate leaders to keep the status quo in place.
On Tuesday, Moms Demand Action members fanned out across the capital to ask lawmakers not to pass the age change. The group’s executive director, Angela Ferrell-Zabala, says she remembers how, after Parkland, then-Gov. Rick Scott and a bipartisan group of legislators worked to prevent what she calls, quote, “another senseless tragedy.”
“To actually roll that back right now is just a slap in the face to survivors and advocates that worked so hard for this change to ensure public safety,” she said.
The House easily passed the bill dropping the age of purchase to 18. The vote was 78-34 with Republicans largely in support. Many of the arguments for lowering the age of purchase center around the Second Amendment — which enshrines the right to own weapons in the U.S. Constitution. However, Ferrell-Zabala disagrees with that stance.
“One thing that I often hear that is very frustrating is pitting this against the Second Amendment. That is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “We have many gun owners amongst us that advocate right alongside us and even gun owners that are survivors of gun violence themselves. Responsible gun ownership is something that we should be really making sure that we have in this state and across the country. Not anything that’s going to be reckless or endanger public safety.”
No, it’s ridiculous to claim that preventing young adults from buying a firearm from a federally licensed retailer doesn’t impact their Second Amendment rights. And keep in mind that Florida law doesn’t prevent adults under the age of 21 from possessing a firearm, only purchasing one. So when Ferrell-Zabala talks about responsible gun ownership, either she must acknowledge that young adults can be responsible with a firearm… or she doesn’t believe that the current law doesn’t go far enough, and that under-21s shouldn’t be allowed to possess a firearm under any circumstances.
I think we all know where she and the other red-shirted moms demanding gun control stand, and it’s not with the single 20-year-old mother who lives in a high-crime neighborhood and wants a gun in her home to protect herself and her child from harm.
The big question is where does Albritton stand; with Second Amendment advocates (including Parkland parents like Ryan Petty) or with Moms Demand Action? He’s talked about being a gun owner and a concealed carry holder, and I’m pleased for him, but so long as he’s standing in the way of young adults protecting themselves in their own home he can hardly proclaim himself a big Second Amendment guy, much less a defender of the right to keep and bear arms.
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