Following FSU shooting, students call on lawmakers to block effort to
lower gun-buying law
[April 23, 2025]
By KATE PAYNE
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.”
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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)
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.
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