TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) – Senate President Ben Albritton wants to gather input from law-enforcement officials before locking in his opinion on a proposal to lower the minimum age to buy rifles and other long guns.

The Wauchula Republican has signaled opposition to another proposal (HB 31) that would allow people to openly carry firearms in Florida, saying he is aligned with law enforcement officials who have opposed the idea. Some Second Amendment advocates have long pushed for “open carry.”

Albritton told reporters this week he will be equally as “cautious” on a proposal (SB 94) by Sen. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne Beach, to repeal a law that prevents people under age 21 from buying rifles and other long guns.

“I want to continue to learn, research,” Albritton said.

Albritton said he is a National Rifle Association member, has a concealed-weapons license and “on most days” is packing heat. But he also said he was raised in a family that was taught to respect law enforcement.

“If law enforcement says it’s not a good thing, I trust that,” Albritton said. “And in this process, you have to choose who you’re going to trust. I trust them.”

Florida politics:

Fine’s bill, which is filed for the 2025 legislative session, is similar to a measure that the House passed during the 2024 session. The proposal died in the Senate.

In 2018, lawmakers and then-Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, approved raising the minimum age to buy rifles and other long guns from 18 to 21 after a mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people. Federal law bars people under 21 from buying handguns.

“You are an adult at 18,” Fine told The News Service of Florida on Monday. “If you have the right to do something at 22, you should have the right to do it at 18.”

The 2018 bill that included raising the minimum age also included numerous steps aimed at bolstering school safety. Fine, who along with Albritton, voted for the 2018 measure, said he backs the overall changes.

“I am proud of my vote, but I even said at the time that in a bill that is more than 100 pages long, you are going to have a few provisions that I don’t like, and I am going to try to fix,” Fine said. “I said, on the day that I voted for the bill, that I did not like these couple of silly gun control provisions.”

Fine, who was elected to the Senate last month after eight years in the House, is running in a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., in Congressional District 6. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Waltz to become national security adviser.

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