The new gun and school safety bill passed shortly after the Parkland shooting has resulted in tangible results in the city of Tampa.

TPD spokesman Steve Hegarty says in 38 cases, Tampa police officers have recovered 62 guns from dangerous people because of the new law. 



Other parts of the law are being challenged in court.

The NRA is suing the state of Florida over the age limit restriction established in the new law. Floridians must now be 21 to purchase a rifle. Before the law, that (federal) restriction was only on handguns.

An 8 On Your Side investigation revealed there are other local laws already on the books, that aren’t being enforced.



Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota counties are among the seven counties statewide that have stronger gun ordinances than state law. Those counties cover about half of Florida’s population. 

Those stricter ordinances were an attempt to regulate private gun sales–i.e. buying a gun from anyone who doesn’t have a federal firearms license, like a friend or neighbor, someone on the internet, or an unlicensed dealer at a gun show.

That’s why it’s commonly referred to as the “gun show loophole”–private sellers are typically not required by law to check the buyer’s background, age restrictions, or enforce waiting periods.

A gun show organizer told 8 On Your Side last year that about 5% of sellers at his Tampa gun show fell into that loophole.

“There is no particular requirement that would require a private vendor or private seller of a firearm to conduct a background check of a person wishing to purchase a firearm they have offered for sale,” said Jorge Fernandez of Florida Gun Shows. 

But Hillsborough County’s code of ordinances does include that requirement: no gun sale can happen “on property in Hillsborough County, Florida to which the public has the right of access…until the seller conducts or causes to be conducted a criminal history records check of the buyer.”

The ordinance was passed in the years after Floridians voted Amendment 12 into the state constitution in 1998, allowing counties the option to strengthen background checks and/or waiting periods for gun purchases.

That amendment gained steam after it was discovered Hank Earl Carr, the Tampa felon who killed three law enforcement officers and a child earlier that year, procured many of the guns in his arsenal from private sales.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says it is not enforcing that ordinance due to confusion over a state preemption law and confusion over the amendment’s wording.

State law preempts municipalities from making their own gun laws, but it specifically carves out an exception for stricter background checks and waiting periods made possible by Amendment 12.

That law, therefore, does not affect Hillsborough (or any other) County’s ability to enforce its ordinance.

But there is confusion over the wording of “property to which the public has the right of access” because it’s not defined in the constitution and most of the counties that have stricter gun ordinances define the phrase differently.