WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Days after a deadly shooting on their campus, Florida State University students who also survived a mass shooting in Parkland in 2018 sent a letter Monday to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis demanding he squash efforts to lower the firearm purchase age back to 18 years old.
The law that raised the minimum gun purchase age to 21 was passed as part of a gun reform package following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which was one of the deadliest shootings in the country. For these former Parkland and current FSU students who sent the letter to the governor, this is their second school shooting.
One of the founders for March For Our Lives, a group formed following the shooting in Parkland, led a group of 28 students in writing the letter, calling it “unthinkable” and “dangerous” for the Legislature to consider changing the gun purchase age to 18. Jaclyn Corin said many of the students who demanded action in 2018 after the Parkland shooting are now FSU students who experienced tragedy again.
“There is no doubt that that law has saved lives over the past seven years, and so now it’s quite ironic that this is the very law that is being threatened in the aftermath of what is many of those same students who rose their voices, their second school shooting,” Corin said.
DeSantis and Republican lawmakers have backed the measure, saying that if a person is old enough to be in the military, they should be able to purchase a gun.
Despite having support from Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, Senate President Ben Albritton has been more hesitant about the measure. In a conference with reporters in March, Albritton got emotional recounting his visit to the Parkland high school building where 17 people were killed. He said he is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, but that he has not made a decision on the measure.
Thursday's shooting at a university minutes away from the Florida Capitol may leave an uncertain future for the measure, since it has not yet been heard in the state Senate. The legislative session is scheduled to end next week.
“Rolling it back would dishonor the lives we lost in Parkland and Tallahassee, and amount to a slap in the face to survivors and to the countless lives that law has helped protect,” the letter sent Monday read. “It ignores the trauma we carry. And it sends a clear message to students: the state of Florida sees our lives as expendable.”
The shooter in Parkland was a 19-year-old. He is now serving life in prison.
On Thursday, a 20-year-old FSU student opened fire near the student union, using his deputy sheriff stepparent’s former service weapon. Two people were killed and six injured.
FILE - People attend a candlelight vigil for the victims of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron De Santis speaks during a press conference on immigration enforcement, at Homestead Air Force Base, Feb. 26, 2025, in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
FILE - People comfort each other as they sit and mourn at one of seventeen crosses, Feb. 15, 2018, after a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
