House Votes To Raise Minimum Age To Buy Semi-Automatic Rifles To 21
By Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin, Frank Thorp V, Kyle Stewart, & Kate Santaliz
Article / Archive [ https://archive.ph/1JjvK ]
WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to raise the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, as part of a package of gun bills in response to a horrific spate of mass shootings across the country.
© Provided by NBC News
The vote was 228-199, mostly along party lines, with nearly all Democrats voting “yes” and all but a small group of Republicans voting “no.”
The age provision is part of the Protecting Our Kids Act [A], legislation written by Democrats and slated for a final House vote Wednesday night. Party leaders broke the package up into individual votes for specific proposals to pressure Republican lawmakers who are resistant to toughening gun laws.
“Why? Why would someone be against raising the age so that teenagers do not have AK-47s?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday at an event with advocates seeking to reduce gun violence. “Yes, they say mental health issues. Yes, we want to address mental health issues. Other countries have mental health issues. They don’t have a gun violence epidemic.”
Ahead of the vote, House Republican leaders sent an email to GOP offices pressuring them to vote “no” on the bill, derisively labeling it the “Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions Act.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Congress should try to address the root cause of the problem and not impose gun restrictions, arguing that lawmakers did not ban airplanes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Airplanes were used that day as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country. There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes,” Scalise told reporters.
The Protecting Our Kids Act includes a ban on large-capacity ammunition feeding devices and tougher penalties for gun trafficking and straw purchases. It also would establish residential gun storage rules, with criminal penalties for violations. Additionally, the bill would require registration for bump stock-type devices and modify the definition of a "ghost gun" that is subject to regulation.
Republicans are facing some pressure to back tougher laws after recent shootings — including the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — have shocked the nation. A recent CBS News poll [A] found that U.S. adults prefer stricter gun laws over less strict measures by a 5-to-1 margin.
In the poll, 77 percent of respondents said the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 should be 21, if not older.
"The slaughter of children is not a partisan issue," House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters.
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' Age hike unlikely to survive in Senate. '
The legislative package being considered by the House is all but guaranteed to fail in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans have effective veto power on gun legislation due to the filibuster. Separate negotiations are taking place on a slimmer bill that is unlikely to include raising the rifle purchasing age.
The chief Republican negotiator, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, is resistant to increasing the age minimum as he seeks a deal that can win about half the 50-member GOP caucus.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is part of the negotiating group, said raising the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic weapons wasn’t on the table, but “it may come up in future discussions."
Still, there are numerous signs of movement in the Senate after semi-automatic rifles were used in recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, came out for raising the age to 21 this week. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, said raising the age "makes a lot of sense." And Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, said she's open to the idea.
“It’s certainly alarming that so many of the mass killers have been between age 18 and 21,” she said.
Some Republicans in conservative states are also facing calls to act.
"Wyoming is a very Second Amendment-supporting state, so I've heard many people calling in, saying, leave our gun rights in place. By the same token, I've heard a lot of calls, also from people who are saying, try to find something you can do to work on this," Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said.
But when asked if she would support raising the age to buy certain firearms, Lummis responded: "I would not support that."
Gotta say, raising the age from 18 to 21 is NOT the absolute worst compromise I've seen come from gun reform talk. Barring certain guns behind the same age restriction as tobacco and alcohol isn't the most retarded idea they've presented. Though I'd imagine that such a bill might require some tweaks involving military law too. Maybe. If they ever thought that far.
However, even if it somehow passes, we all know it won't really fix the actual issues. Because even if the government suits realized targeting legal gun ownership does nothing for the illegal guns on the streets (or the "ghost guns" they're so hyped on for headlines now), no matter the compromises made, it's never enough.
(And that's not even going in to the ever-retarded argument of "B-but teens shouldn't be able to own AK-47s!" as if the laws/restrictions to buy an actual, genuine AK-47 in the U.S. of A isn't already through the fucking roof in difficulty, if not outright impossible in some states. And pretty much any that ARE legally sold have been neutered to hell and back. But whatever. Reality rarely fuels the narrative.)
By Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin, Frank Thorp V, Kyle Stewart, & Kate Santaliz
Article / Archive [ https://archive.ph/1JjvK ]
WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to raise the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, as part of a package of gun bills in response to a horrific spate of mass shootings across the country.
© Provided by NBC News
The vote was 228-199, mostly along party lines, with nearly all Democrats voting “yes” and all but a small group of Republicans voting “no.”
The age provision is part of the Protecting Our Kids Act [A], legislation written by Democrats and slated for a final House vote Wednesday night. Party leaders broke the package up into individual votes for specific proposals to pressure Republican lawmakers who are resistant to toughening gun laws.
“Why? Why would someone be against raising the age so that teenagers do not have AK-47s?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday at an event with advocates seeking to reduce gun violence. “Yes, they say mental health issues. Yes, we want to address mental health issues. Other countries have mental health issues. They don’t have a gun violence epidemic.”
Ahead of the vote, House Republican leaders sent an email to GOP offices pressuring them to vote “no” on the bill, derisively labeling it the “Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions Act.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Congress should try to address the root cause of the problem and not impose gun restrictions, arguing that lawmakers did not ban airplanes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Airplanes were used that day as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country. There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes,” Scalise told reporters.
The Protecting Our Kids Act includes a ban on large-capacity ammunition feeding devices and tougher penalties for gun trafficking and straw purchases. It also would establish residential gun storage rules, with criminal penalties for violations. Additionally, the bill would require registration for bump stock-type devices and modify the definition of a "ghost gun" that is subject to regulation.
Republicans are facing some pressure to back tougher laws after recent shootings — including the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — have shocked the nation. A recent CBS News poll [A] found that U.S. adults prefer stricter gun laws over less strict measures by a 5-to-1 margin.
In the poll, 77 percent of respondents said the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 should be 21, if not older.
"The slaughter of children is not a partisan issue," House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters.
-----
' Age hike unlikely to survive in Senate. '
The legislative package being considered by the House is all but guaranteed to fail in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans have effective veto power on gun legislation due to the filibuster. Separate negotiations are taking place on a slimmer bill that is unlikely to include raising the rifle purchasing age.
The chief Republican negotiator, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, is resistant to increasing the age minimum as he seeks a deal that can win about half the 50-member GOP caucus.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is part of the negotiating group, said raising the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic weapons wasn’t on the table, but “it may come up in future discussions."
Still, there are numerous signs of movement in the Senate after semi-automatic rifles were used in recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, came out for raising the age to 21 this week. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, said raising the age "makes a lot of sense." And Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, said she's open to the idea.
“It’s certainly alarming that so many of the mass killers have been between age 18 and 21,” she said.
Some Republicans in conservative states are also facing calls to act.
"Wyoming is a very Second Amendment-supporting state, so I've heard many people calling in, saying, leave our gun rights in place. By the same token, I've heard a lot of calls, also from people who are saying, try to find something you can do to work on this," Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said.
But when asked if she would support raising the age to buy certain firearms, Lummis responded: "I would not support that."
Gotta say, raising the age from 18 to 21 is NOT the absolute worst compromise I've seen come from gun reform talk. Barring certain guns behind the same age restriction as tobacco and alcohol isn't the most retarded idea they've presented. Though I'd imagine that such a bill might require some tweaks involving military law too. Maybe. If they ever thought that far.
However, even if it somehow passes, we all know it won't really fix the actual issues. Because even if the government suits realized targeting legal gun ownership does nothing for the illegal guns on the streets (or the "ghost guns" they're so hyped on for headlines now), no matter the compromises made, it's never enough.
(And that's not even going in to the ever-retarded argument of "B-but teens shouldn't be able to own AK-47s!" as if the laws/restrictions to buy an actual, genuine AK-47 in the U.S. of A isn't already through the fucking roof in difficulty, if not outright impossible in some states. And pretty much any that ARE legally sold have been neutered to hell and back. But whatever. Reality rarely fuels the narrative.)
