TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate on Saturday voted down a bill to ban assault-style weapons, then immediately pivoted to a moment of silence for victims of the shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school last month.
Many student survivors of the Feb. 14 massacre that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School flocked to the State House in the days after the shooting to lobby legislators to ban assault weapons and take other measures on gun control.
The bill to ban assault weapons, including the AR-15 used in the school shooting, failed by a 20-to-17 vote.
In the rare Saturday session, the Senate was considering a 100-page bill that, among other things, would raise the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 and create a waiting period to buy the weapons.
Lawmakers debated dozens of amendments, including the complete ban on military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines.
The Senate was originally scheduled to wrap up discussion by 1 p.m., but extended the session to 9 p.m.
A final vote on the bill won’t happen until Monday, and Senate leaders said they were conferring with their House colleagues to ensure that the measure will have sufficient support in that chamber.
After the vote on assault-style weapons, Senate President Joe Negron, a Republican, asked senators to take their seats.
He said that by the proclamation of Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, there would be a moment of ‘‘silence and reflection’’ for the Parkland victims.
‘‘Today marks 17 days after those 17 fellow citizens lost their lives,’’ said Negron, who voted against the ban. ‘‘I would ask us to begin reflecting on their lives and the bravery that was shown on that day.’’
The body then moved to other legislation on guns. A measure to allow parents to opt students out of a classroom where a teacher is armed failed.
The Florida Legislature has long resisted restrictions on guns and has been a laboratory for gun rights legislation that is later introduced in other states. But in the wake of the Parkland shooting, some gun-control measures have quickly advanced in Tallahassee.
Budget committees in the House and Senate signed off on a suite of bills that include raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 and mandating a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases.
State Senator Linda Stewart, a Democrat who introduced the amendment to ban assault weapons, said on the Senate floor that ammunition from assault weapons can explode inside the victim’s body and that there is no reason for anyone to have them.
‘‘I want us to do today what the kids asked us to do when 10,000 of them came up here on the steps of the Capitol and asked us,’’ she said. ‘‘Never again. Please ban assault weapons.’’
But state Senator Kelli Stargel, a Republican, argued that banning assault weapons could be a slippery slope. Would fertilizer, used in the 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building, be banned? Or pressure cookers, used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings?
‘‘Thoughts and prayers are really the only thing that’s going to stop the evil from within the individual that is taking up their arms to do this type of massacre,’’ Stargel said.
Jaclyn Corin, junior class president at the high school, tweeted that the vote ‘‘breaks my heart, but we will not let this ruin our movement.’’
She then wrote on Twitter: ‘‘a moment of silence will not s
ave the lives of innocent Americans.’’
In Washington, amid mixed messages from President Trump about what should be done about gun laws, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said no gun-related legislation will be heard this week.
No matter how loud the outcry from high school students and others who are pushing for action, analysts say there is little sign that significant federal gun legislation will be passed this year.
Two out of three adults in the United States want stricter gun laws, CBS found in a poll conducted a week after the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland. But among Republicans, 54 percent want gun laws left alone or made less strict.
That’s probably why the most politically vulnerable officials facing reelection battles this fall have kept their heads down, leaving the heavy lifting to elected officials facing less political risk this fall.
On the US Senate floor last week, blue-state senators such as Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts; Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont; and Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, delivered fiery speeches about gun violence.
Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, a swing-state Republican whose current term ends in 2022, reemerged as the face of the push for universal background checks.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican retiring at the end of this year, partnered with California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein on legislation to move the minimum age to buy long guns to 21.
But those Democrats running in Republican-leaning states this fall were far less conspicuous.
North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp and Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly, both Democrats running for reelection in states Trump won handily, have said nothing about gun violence from the Senate floor in recent days, but they have made statements honoring constituents who had recently died.
