Sunday's mass shooting in Orlando has rekindled Tallahassee's simmering debate over gun control, with some Democrats calling for a ban on the sale of assault weapons in Florida.

  • Supporters say the ban would have prevented the Pulse shooter from purchasing the weapon he used
  • Chances of reform likely still slim, despite aftermath of incident

"Not so much as lawmakers, but as just citizens, I think we owe it to the safety of our children's future and our children's children's future to ensure that the folks who should have guns have them and the folks that shouldn't don't," said Rep. Alan Williams (D-Tallahassee), who called the shooting a "turning point" with the power to change popular attitudes in the overwhelmingly Republican Florida Legislature.

Supporters say a state-level assault weapon ban could have prevented Omar Mateen, the gunman who perpetrated Sunday's attack, from purchasing the AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle he used to murder dozens of people.

Gun safety advocates are also demanding legislation that would prevent the sale of firearms to individuals on suspected terrorist watch lists. While Mateen was on such a list in 2013 and 2014, he was removed as the result of an inconclusive federal investigation.

That fact, coupled with Republican leaders' beliefs that enhanced state gun regulation would only serve to make it more difficult for law-abiding Floridians to obtain weapons, could make the chances of reform slim, even in the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

"The striking thing about what we think we know about this incident is that all of the so-called 'loopholes' that people typically point to were not a part of this crime, not a part of this terrorist act," said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a Republican.