FSU students who endured Parkland shooting urge Florida lawmakers to defend gun control law

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida students who were traumatized by the 2018 Parkland school shooting — and last week's deadly shooting at Florida State University — are urging the Republican-controlled statehouse not to roll back gun restrictions passed in the wake of the killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Gun rights activists have been fighting to unravel the 2018 law since its passage, including a provision that raised the state's minimum age to buy a gun to 21.

Following the FSU shooting, student activists are urging lawmakers to support gun control policies in the final two weeks of the legislative session, which is set to end May 2.

“No one should ever have to experience a school shooting — let alone two — just to have to beg lawmakers to care enough to stop the next one,” said Stephanie Horowitz, who was a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and is now a graduate student at FSU.

Two people were killed and six others injured in the shooting last Thursday that terrorized FSU’s campus, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the state Capitol. As of Wednesday, the 20-year-old student who investigators have identified as the suspect remains hospitalized and in good condition, officials said. Charges aren't expected to be filed against Phoenix Ikner until he's released.

Logan Rubenstein was in eighth grade at nearby Coral Springs Middle School when a 19-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle killed 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Now the 21-year-old is a junior at FSU.

“It wasn’t as deadly as it could have been," Rubenstein said of the FSU shooting. "And to me, that’s because of the laws that we passed after Parkland.”

In the aftermath of the Parkland massacre, survivors and relatives of the victims descended on the state capitol in an extraordinary feat of advocacy, successfully pushing the Republican-led legislature to pass wide-ranging gun legislation just weeks afterward.

That included establishing a red flag law, which allows courts to take away guns from people who pose a danger to themselves or others, and raising the state's gun-buying age.

Investigators say the FSU suspect armed himself with a handgun that was the former service weapon of his stepmother, a local sheriff’s deputy.

Under current Florida law, Ikner couldn't legally buy a rifle from a federally licensed dealer.

Rubenstein said his message to lawmakers is to find the “political courage” to protect the state's gun restrictions.

“When it comes to life and death, it’s important to do the right thing,” he said.

About three weeks before the FSU shooting, the Florida House passed a bill that would lower the state's minimum age to buy a gun to 18. The proposal had already stalled in the state Senate before the shooting, and it appears even less likely to advance now.

On Wednesday, Republican state Sen. Corey Simon, a former FSU football player who represents Tallahassee, was moved to tears as he spoke on the Senate floor about the “senseless violence."

“Today I rise and ask for a moment of silence for my Seminole family, as we mourn those lost and the many lives that have been changed forever,” Simon said, at times bowed over in grief.

On Wednesday, the family of one of the victims announced his funeral will take place Friday in Greenville, South Carolina. Tiru Chabba, a 45-year-old father of two and a resident of Greenville, had been on FSU’s campus the day of the shooting as an employee of food service vendor Aramark, according to attorneys for his family.

Democratic state Sen. Tina Polsky, whose district includes Parkland, is among the Democrats who have sponsored gun control bills this session that never got a hearing in the Capitol, where Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers.

“I am begging them to do something like we did after the horrific Parkland shooting,” Polsky said at a rally with student activists on the steps of Florida's historic old Capitol on Wednesday. “I don’t know if it’s going to happen. But we will continue to fight.”

Before the students headed back into the halls of the Capitol to lobby lawmakers and their aides, Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani told them to not let up.

“They have the power to waive the rules and agenda whatever bills they want,” Eskamani said of Republican leaders. “We’re not trying to make this political. We are trying to save lives.”

Students and activists rally for gun control policies outside of Florida's historic old capitol, Wednesday, April 23, 2025 in Tallahassee, Fla., less than a week after a deadly shooting at Florida State University. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Students and activists rally for gun control policies outside of Florida's historic old capitol on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 in Tallahassee, Fla., less than a week after a deadly shooting at Florida State University. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Logan Rubenstein, a 21-year-old junior at Florida State University, speaks at a rally in support of gun control policies on the steps of Florida's historic old capitol on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 in Tallahassee, Fla., less than a week after a deadly shooting on FSU's campus. Rubenstein is also a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed in 2018 in what is considered one of the country's deadliest mass shootings. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Students and activists rally for gun control policies outside of Florida's historic old capitol on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 in Tallahassee, Fla., less than a week after a deadly shooting at Florida State University. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)