According to several Republicans on the Washington House Judiciary Committee, being at least 21 for gun-buyers doesn’t prevent 18-year-olds from buying guns and killing people.
His argument rests on his belief that those who are intent on doing harm will do so even if there are laws against it – a way of thinking that calls into question the whole enterprise of writing laws.
Democrats called for hearings Thursday to advance a package of gun control legislation in response to the recent high-profile mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, in which 18-year-olds combined with 30 Killed more people.
A significant part of the package would raise the federal minimum age to purchase most shotguns and rifles, including AR-15 assault rifles used in both shootings, to 21.
Current law under the Gun Control Act requires only 21 years of age to purchase a handgun from a licensed dealer, but anyone who is at least 18 years old can purchase shotguns, rifles and ammunition. The gunman who killed 19 schoolchildren in Uvalde legally bought assault rifles from a licensed dealer just days after his 18th birthday.
The committee’s top Republican Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said during Thursday’s hearing, “This bill will not address the tragedies we’ve seen across the country in the past few weeks.”
Jordan, referring to Republican proposals to increase school security, said, “It won’t stop the horrific incidents we’ve seen, not hardening schools, such as adding armed guards, arming teachers, and closing doors on school buildings.” reduce the number.
In the wake of the shootings, many Republicans have dismissed the Democratic proposals as meaningless, arguing that Congress is powerless to stop mass shooters other than giving more firepower to their intended targets. The argument of futility was in force in Thursday’s hearing.
Representative Ken Buck (R-Col) said, “These bills that have been introduced … what happened in the last three shootings and many other shootings could not have been stopped.”
Buck continued, “We have a serious problem with families in this country, that involves drugs, mental health.” “We have gone in the wrong direction in the last 40 or 50 years. We have become a less secure society in general. It is petty thinking to blame guns for what is happening in America.”
Representative Matt Getz (R-Fla.) said a higher age limit would not prevent “prescribed” teens from becoming mass shooters. “I don’t think these people won’t wait a year or two” to buy their guns, he said.
Rep. Thomas Massey (R-Ky.) suggested that any attempt to write a law reducing gun crime would be a waste of time, as all gun crimes are committed by criminals.
“Every one of these bills is unconstitutional and unconstitutional and suffers from a problem — the underlying problem that plagues almost all gun control,” Massey said. “Namely: Criminals do not obey the law. They do not obey the law.”
Never mind that the same argument can be made against any proposed law with criminal penalties.
Rep. Ted Dutch (D-Fla.) pointed out that the need for an older age would, in fact, have made the difference between Uvalde and Buffalo.
“Every time someone sits in this meeting and says we’re not doing anything here it can be stopped, in fact, if we had a law that said you had to be 21 to buy, then this Two AR-15s would not have been bought,” said the Dutch.
Rep. David Sicilin (DR.I.) said that even the age of more gun buying could have prevented the mass shootings in Santa Fe, Texas; Parkland, Florida; Newtown, Connecticut; and Columbine, Colorado.
“If those killers couldn’t find guns, they wouldn’t have been able to do it because they weren’t old enough,” Sicilin said. “Stop saying that nothing will change in this law. That’s a lie.”
Even though shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo may have been unable to purchase their rifles from licensed dealers, the proposed law would not have prevented them from purchasing guns from an unlicensed source, such as a hobbyist at a gun show or from a random person. Internet. Democrats have proposed expanding background checks to cover such unlicensed transactions, but have not raised the age limit for them.
Although the federal age requirement for purchasing shotguns and rifles is 18 or older, Florida raised the age limit for gun purchases to 21 after a teenage gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida. . But Florida Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott, who signed the age restriction into law as Florida governor at the time, have not supported the higher age limit nationally.
Not all Republicans agreed about the uselessness of the higher age limit. Rep. Dan Bishop (RN.C.) said the proposed age restriction could make a difference in Uvalde and New York.
“If they couldn’t get them legally, and you believe they wouldn’t have got them, it could have prevented that particular incident,” Bishop told HuffPost during a break in the hearing.
But Bishop and other Republicans had another argument against the higher age requirement: It may be unconstitutional because the Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution’s Second Amendment protects a person’s right to own a gun.
a federal appeals court ruled last month The California law allowing the sale of guns to people under the age of 21 was unconstitutional. Last year another federal court ruled that a federal law banning the sale of handguns to people under the age of 21 was unconstitutional, though the decision was later deemed controversial because the plaintiffs were no longer 21 years old.
Rep. Joe Negues (D-Col) held that the decision of the appeals court is not “the final word on the constitutionality of a given provision”.
Other new gun control measures include Democrats banning high-capacity magazines, requirements that all guns are traceable and rules for storing guns in homes with children.
