By Stephany Matat
West Palm Beach, Florida (AP) – Days after a deadly shooting, students from Florida State University who also survived a fatal shooting in Parkland from 2018 sent a letter to the Republican Governor Ron Desantis on Monday, demanding that he crushes efforts to reduce the age of purchase of firearms at 18.
The law which increased the age of purchase of minimum firearms at 21 was adopted as part of a firearm reform package following a mass shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas secondary school in Parkland, Florida, 2018, known as one of the deadliest shooting in the country. For these former park students and current FSU who sent the letter to the governor, it was their second school shoot.
One of the founders of March for Our Lives, a group formed following the shooting in Parkland, led a group of these 28 students by writing this letter, calling it “unthinkable” and “dangerous” so that the Legislative Assembly plans to return the age of purchase of arms to 18 years. Jacklyn Corin said that many students demanded the action in 2018 after the Park shooting are now FSU students who have undergone this tranetized a second time.
“There is no doubt that this law has saved lives in the past seven years, and therefore now it is quite ironic that it is the very law which is threatened in the aftermath of what is a lot of these same students who increased their voices, their second school shoot,” said Corin.
Desantis and the Republican legislators supported the measure, saying that if they are old enough to be in the army, they should be able to buy a firearm.
Despite the support of the president of Florida, Daniel Perez, the president of the Senate Ben Albritton had more hesitation for the measure. During a conference with journalists in March, Albritton told his visit to the Parkland High School building where 17 people were killed in 2018. He said that he was a life member of the National Rifle Association, but that he had not made a decision on the measure.
The shooting in a university report of the Capitol of Florida could leave an uncertain future for this measure, because it has not yet been heard in the State Senate. The legislative session is expected to finalize at the end of next week.
“Return it back to dishonor the lives we have lost in Parkland and Tallahassee, and would be equivalent to a slap in the face to the survivors and the countless lives that the law has helped to protect,” said the letter. “He ignores the trauma we carry. And he sends a clear message to students: the state of Florida considers our consumable lives.”
The 2018 measure increasing the age at 21 was in response to Parkland, where a 19-year-old shooter is currently facing life for life for the deadly violence of this Valentine’s Day seven years ago.
On Thursday, an FSU student, aged 20, opened fire near the student union, using the old service weapon of his parent of assistant sheriff. Two people were killed and six injured.
In a statement on Monday morning, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare announced that three patients had been released from the hospital and that they planned that two others were released later during the day. The sixth patient remaining is in “good condition”.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
