MIAMI – Advocates for stricter gun laws fear that a minor change in the wording of Florida’s mandatory three-day waiting period to buy a gun would major consequences, weakening the law passed in the wake of the Parkland school shooting.
Rep. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, filed House Bill 17 Wednesday, “an act relating to expiration of the mandatory waiting period for firearms purchases.”
It strikes and replaces just one word in Florida’s current law, which closed the “Charleston loophole,” allowing gun purchases to move forward by default after three business days even if a background check hasn’t been completed. Florida’s original three-day waiting period law, enacted in 1991, featured the loophole.
The current law reads: “A mandatory waiting period is imposed between the 14 purchase and delivery of a firearm. The mandatory waiting period 15 is 3 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or expires 16 upon the completion of the records checks required under s. 17 790.065, whichever occurs later.”
In Rudman’s proposal, the word “later” is replaced with the word “earlier.”
Rudman’s said the single world “makes all the difference” as his constituents complain of protracted background checks by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The law would return Florida to the 1991 standard.
“Their background checks have taken over two years to resolve,” Rudman said. “We want everyone to have a background check, we want to everyone to clear a background check, it all boils down to how fast someone can clear a background check.”
He added, “I want them (the FDLE) to be just as accountable and just as efficient at the FBI.”
Manuel Oliver, the father of Parkland school shooting victim Joaquin Olvier, lambasted the bill in an interview with Local 10 News.
“This is the only country that is not at war, here at least, on our land, that people are desperate and they need a gun before the next three days,” Oliver said. “What is going on in your life that you need to arm yourself in the next 72 hours?”
Related: 5 years after Parkland shooting, is Florida moving ‘backwards’ on gun reform?
Oliver said he thinks background checks “should take time.”
“Every time we achieve something, it is almost irrelevant. I will put my life on this battle, I decided to do that after I lost my son Joaquin,” he said. “I am afraid Florida has gone backwards when it comes to gun laws and this just proves we are going in the wrong direction. It is absurd, it not even reasonable, that any politician will be fighting to get guns in the hands of people in 72 hours, why is that a problem?”
Legal analyst David Weinstein weighed in on how the bill could change gun purchases in Florida.
“It certainly signals a change that the government now expects people to be able to have ready and quick access to a firearm that they are looking to purchase,” Weinstein said. “What’s been changed is that pressure has been put on FDLE to complete your background check so you don’t have ever wait longer than three days.”
A 2022 Gallup poll found that “66% of Americans support stricter gun laws…the highest (percentage) since shortly after the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting in 2018.”
The Gallup poll also found broad bipartisan support for a 30-day waiting period for gun sales.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics says studies show that waiting periods for gun sales “have proven to lower the rates of suicide” and lead to a “decrease in gun homicides.”
“It might prevent someone from acting impulsively and it is really a common sense step that we can take to keep communities safe,” Kelly Drane, the research director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said.
Rudman responded to criticism from Oliver and others, saying the bill’s intent is not to weaken background checks, but keep government efficient and accountable.
“What I would want Manuel Oliver and the other parents...to know is that I lost my brother to gun violence, we are all in favor of background checks, we all want guardrails in place, they just have to be conducted in an efficient manner,” Rudman said. “You don’t give a government agency an unlimited amount of time to complete their job.”
Local 10 News contacted the FDLE for comment but has not received a response as of Thursday.
The bill would likely face several committee stops this fall before the next legislative session begins in January.