NEWSWEEK

House Votes ‘Yea’ on Raising Age to 21 for Purchase of Assault Rifles

BY JAKE THOMAS ON 6/8/22 AT 6:37 PM EDT

Watch: House Votes ‘Yea’ On Raising Age To 21 For Purchase Of Assault Rifles

The House of Representatives has approved legislation in favor of raising the age to purchase a military-style rifle, like the one used in Uvalde, Texas, to 21.

Lawmakers voted 228-199 to include the provision in a package of gun control measures approved earlier by the House Judiciary Committee. The vote comes in response to pressure for Congress to respond to a string of mass shootings, including a massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24 in Uvalde. While the measure passed with some Republican support, it faces an uncertain future in the evenly divided Senate.

The House of Representatives voted 228-199 in favor of a provision raising the age to buy military-style guns to 21. Here, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, speaks to the House Oversight and Reform Committee following testimony about gun violence on June 8, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Representative Anthony Brown, the Maryland Democrat who authored the provision, said on the House floor that shooters in massacres in Uvalde, Buffalo, New York, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and others were committed by males under age 21.

“Right now, you must be 21 in this country to buy a handgun, and you only need to be 18 years old to buy a semiautomatic rifle capable of committing unspeakable tragedies,” Brown said on the floor. “I served in the military. I trained with these weapons. I know what they can do. These weapons of war have no place in our neighborhoods, let alone in the hands of an untrained 18-year-old boy.”

While he said the legislation wouldn’t stop the country’s gun violence problem, it would be worth it if it “can save one life or one community from this carnage.”

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Title I of the Protecting Our Kids Act prohibits federally licensed federal gun dealers from selling to anyone under the age of 21 any “semiautomatic centerfire rifle or semiautomatic centerfire shotgun that has, or has the capacity to accept, an ammunition feeding device with a capacity exceeding 5 rounds.”

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Will Humble of the AZ Public Health Association also supports background checks on individuals, a three day waiting period and would perfer that we raise the age to buy these weapons to 25 years. Although he recognizes this is not likely to happen; he indicates the 3 day waiting period will help reduce the number of suicides and the background checks will help reduce the number of homicides.

Action definitely needs to be taken. There is a big difference between the militia men of 1776 and the assault rifles of today. cew