Following FSU shooting, students call on lawmakers to block effort to lower gun-buying law

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Student survivors of last week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University urged state legislators Tuesday to block an effort to reverse a law passed after the 2018 Parkland school shooting that raised the state's gun-buying age from 18 to 21.

Days after a gunman terrorized the university in the state capital of Tallahassee, students traveled to the Capitol to call on lawmakers to take action to protect them from gun violence.

“When I transferred to Florida State University just last fall, I never thought I’d find myself locked inside a classroom, texting loved ones, unsure if I’d ever see them again,” said Andres Perez, a 20-year-old junior and president of the school’s chapter of Students Demand Action.

“We owe it to the victims, not just here at Florida State University, but across Florida and across our nation, to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Perez said.

Thursday's shooting killed two men who were not students and injured six others on FSU's campus, about one mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Capitol building, where lawmakers are in the final weeks of their annual session.

Investigators have said the student suspect in the FSU shooting, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, used the former service weapon of his stepmother, a sheriff’s deputy, to carry out the shooting. Ikner was shot and wounded by police, but is expected to survive.

The student remains hospitalized and won’t be formally charged until he is released, Tallahassee Police Department spokesman Lt. Damon Miller Jr. said Tuesday. “We don’t have a timeline on that,” Miller said in a phone interview.

As of Tuesday afternoon, five of the patients who suffered gunshot wounds have been discharged from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital while one is still hospitalized and is in “good condition,” according to TMH spokesperson Sarah Cannon. Hospital officials would not confirm the identity of the patient, citing patient privacy laws.

On Tuesday, FSU students stood alongside Democratic members of the state House of Representatives in the Capitol rotunda and recounted sending what they feared would be their final messages to family members, whispering “I love you” into their phones as they huddled in darkened classrooms.

“We built barricades that day with nothing but chairs,” said Natanel Mizrahi, a 22-year-old senior. “There were no locks on our doors. So instead, brave students stood near the entrance with more chairs to try and do anything that they could to stop a would-be attacker.”

The students called on lawmakers to reject the push to allow adults under age 21 to buy firearms, to ensure college classrooms have door locks, and to allocate funding for campus mental health resources and active shooter training.

In a statement, FSU spokesperson Amy Farnum-Patronis said active shooter training is optional and open to all students and employees, but is not currently mandatory for employees.

"Ensuring the safety and well-being of our campus community remains our foremost priority. Florida State University is continually reviewing and assessing our security protocols, including evaluating door locks, to ensure the safety of everyone on campus," Farnum-Patronis said.

For some FSU students, it wasn't the first time they have been traumatized by a school shooting. For a small group, the sight of abandoned laptops and bookbags left behind by students fleeing for their lives was a grim reminder of the shooting they survived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed and 17 others were injured.

After that shooting, student survivors and grieving families crowded Florida's capitol in an extraordinary lobbying effort, successfully pushing the Republican-run Legislature to pass new gun control measures.

This session, lawmakers have been considering bills to expand gun rights and roll back some restrictions, including lowering the gun-buying age. Gov. Ron DeSantis and some 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.

Though the bill has the support of House Speaker Daniel Perez, Senate President Ben Albritton had been more hesitant about the measure even before the shooting at FSU.

Speaking with reporters in March, Albritton became emotional recounting his visit to the Parkland high school building. He said he is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association but that he has not made a decision on the measure.

This story has been corrected to reflect the 2018 law raised the legal age for gun purchases to 21. A previous version stated the law had lowered the gun-buying age.

Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Tampa and Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach contributed to this report. Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Madalyn Propst, a 19-year-old freshman at Florida State University, speaks at a news conference in the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. alongside Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Florida State University Student Union building after campus is closed following a shooting, in Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)

An impromptu memorial shared online brings students bearing flowers into the evening near the center of the Florida State campus in sight of the Student Union building, Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)

Natanel Mizrahi, a 22-year-old junior at Florida State University, speaks at a news conference in the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. alongside Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

A student places flowers near the Florida State Student Union building, Tallahassee, Fla., Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)

Andres Perez, a 20-year-old junior at Florida State University, speaks at a nes conference in the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. alongside Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell speaks at a news conference in the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., Tuesday, April 22, 2025, alongside Democratic lawmakers and Florida State University students affected by the April 17, 2025 shooting on the school's campus. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

WASHINGTON (AP) —

American employers added a better-than-expected 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience in the face of President Donald Trump's trade wars.

Hiring was down slightly from a revised 185,000 in March and came in above economists’ expectations for a modest 135,000. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.2%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

President Donald Trump’s aggressive and unpredictable policies – including massive import taxes – have clouded the outlook for the economy and the job market and raised fears that the American economy is headed toward recession.

Transportation and warehousing companies added 29,000 jobs last month, suggesting that companies have been stocking up before essential, imported goods are hit with a wave of new tariffs, driving prices higher. Healthcare companies added nearly 51,000 jobs and bars, restaurants almost 17,000 and construction firms 11,000. Factories lost 1,000 jobs.

Labor Department revisions shaved 58,000 jobs from February and March payrolls.

Average hourly earnings ticked up 0.2% from March and 3.8% from a year ago, nearing the 3.5% that economists view as consistent with the 2% inflation the Federal Reserve wants to see.

The report showed that 518,000 people entered the labor force, and the percentage of those working or looking for work ticked up slightly.

“We are not seeing right now any really adverse effects on the employment market,’’ Boston College economist Brian Bethune said before the report came out.

Yet many economists fear that the U.S. job market will deteriorate if economic growth takes a hit from trade wars.

Trump’s massive taxes on imports to the U.S. are likely to raise costs for Americans and American businesses that depend on supplies from overseas. They also threaten to slow economic growth. His immigration crackdown threatens to make it more difficult for hotels, restaurants and construction firms to fill job openings. By purging federal workers and cancelling federal contracts, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency risks wiping out jobs inside the government and out.

“Looking ahead, we expect the steep tariff increases and the surge in uncertainty and financial market volatility will result in a more pronounced labor market downshift than previously anticipated,” Lydia Boussour, senior economist at the accounting and consulting giant EY, wrote this week. “Large cuts to the federal workforce and the cancellations of many government contracts will also be a drag on payroll growth in coming months.’’

A slowdown in immigration “will weigh on labor supply dynamics, further constraining job growth. We foresee the unemployment rate rising toward 5% in 2025.’’

Trump’s policies have shaken financial markets and frightened consumers. The Conference Board, a business group, reported Tuesday that Americans’ confidence in the economy fell for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

American workers have at least one thing going for them. Despite the uncertainty about fallout from Trump’s policies, many employers don’t want to risk letting employees go – not after seeing how hard it was to bring people back from the massive but short-lived layoffs of the 2020 COVID-19 recession.

“They laid millions of these people off, and they had a hell of a time getting them back to work,’’ Boston College’s Bethune said. "So for now, the unemployment rate and the number of people filing claims for jobless benefits every week remain low by historical standards.

Bethune does not expect Musk’s cuts to the federal workforce to show up much in the April jobs numbers. For one thing, job cuts orders by the billionaire’s DOGE are still being challenged in court. For another, some of those leaving federal agencies were forced into early retirement – and don’t show up in the Labor Department’s count of the unemployed.

FILE - Employees of Learning Resources, an educational toy company, work at a warehouse in Vernon Hills, Ill., Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - A worker drives a forklift past shelves of Canadian spruce planks, at Shell Lumber and Hardware, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - A waiter carries drinks, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)

FILE - Delivery workers carry boxes outside a grocery store in the Chinatown neighborhood, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

FILE - Vehicle assembly technician Kevin Zepernick works on a 2025 Ford Expedition during a media tour to launch the 2025 Ford Expedition at the Ford Motor Company Kentucky Truck Plant, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)