Source: United States Senator for California – Dianne Feinstein
Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times this week that laid out the reasons Congress should pass the Age 21 Act, her legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21.
An excerpt from the full op-ed follows:
“Under current law, a firearms dealer with a federal license may not sell a handgun to a buyer under the age of 21. When that law was passed in 1968, it had broad bipartisan support in the House and the Senate.
“However, this protection doesn’t apply to military-style assault weapons. The minimum age to buy an assault rifle is only 18. Simply put, this disparity costs lives.
“If you can’t buy a six pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes, you shouldn’t be able to buy an assault weapon. It’s long past time that Congress addresses this incongruence.
“That’s why we need the Age 21 Act, a bill to prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing assault weapons. President Biden announced his support for the bill, and I’m hopeful we can build bipartisan support for this common-sense measure.”
Senator Feinstein also laid out the data behind the need for this bill:
“A New York Times analysis of mass shootings found that between 1949 and 2017, only two of the 30 deadliest shootings were committed by people under 21. Compare that with the last four years, when the gunman or suspect in six of the nine deadliest mass shootings was a man under the age of 21.
“The Giffords Law Center, using FBI and census data, calculated that while 18- to 20-year-olds make up just 4% of the U.S. population, they commit 17% of all homicides. The Age 21 Act won’t stop young men in this age range from obtaining weapons. But it will make it harder for them to get the guns used to kill the most people.”
Read the full op-ed in the Los Angeles Times here.
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