TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A Florida House of Representatives subcommittee is looking at a new proposal that would lower the minimum age to buy rifles in Florida.
The House Majority Leader proposed the bill that would take the minimum age to buy rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18.
A similar bill passed in the House earlier this year but stalled in the Senate.
The legislature and then-governor Rick Scott increased the minimum age for long gun purchases to 21 after the 2018 Parkland school shooting killed 17 people.
Critics of the bill say lowering the age to buy a gun puts more families at risk.
Chris Hixon was a victim of the Parkland shooting. His son spoke out against the bill earlier this year.
“There are measures, when made into a comprehensive system, to prevent gun violence can prevent another family from going through the same grief we still feel to this day. Removing a piece of that system puts the entire system in jeopardy,” Hixon said.
The bill has moved to the House Judiciary Committee.
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