Jesse Scheckner
Legislation on bump stocks, devices that use the recoil of a semi-automatic rifle so that it fires at near-automatic speed, hasn’t gotten any consideration at the Capitol this year.
That includes a pair of bills (SB 1234, HB 6013) to repeal Florida’s ban on them and another legislative couplet to hike penalties for their use (SB 254, HB 1621).
With most committee action winding down, bills that haven’t been heard in committee yet are likely dead.
Florida’s bump stock ban went into effect March 9, 2018, less than a month after the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history. It was part of a sweeping gun safety package called the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act,” which also added a three-day waiting period for gun purchases and hiked the age limit to buy long rifles to 21.
President Donald Trump’s first administration imposed a national ban on bump stocks nine months later. The move, while close to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, was more in response to the October 2017 massacre in Las Vegas, where a shooter used the device. The high school shooter did not.
But on June 14, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration did not follow federal law in implementing the ban and that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) had overstepped its authority.
That ruling inspired Palm City Republican Rep. Toby Overdorf to file HB 6013, his first bill of the 2025 Session. He told Florida Politics in February that the state’s law should comport with federal law.
“I would like for state law to comply with federal law,” he said, adding, “I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. This is an infringement upon the Second Amendment.”
He added that Gov. Ron DeSantis has advocated for reversing the ban, including during his brief presidential run.
Of note, while the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns and therefore couldn’t be regulated as such by the ATF, the ruling did not prohibit states or federal legislators from making laws about bump stocks.
Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Scott Polsky, who sponsored SB 254, said she’s been dismayed seeing her GOP colleagues in the Legislature repeatedly try to roll back gun safety laws.
“I don’t understand this backwards trend we’re seeing,” she said. “As the Senator of Parkland, I want to do everything I can to keep that good work going and go further to keep Floridians safe.”
If passed, SB 254 or HB 1621 would expand the definition of “machine gun” in Florida Statutes to include any firearm modified to fire at a rate that mimics an automatic weapon.
Possession of a machine gun in Florida is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison for a first offense and $10,000 in fines.
Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain sponsored SB 1234. Homestead Democratic Rep. Kevin Chambliss filed HB 1621.
