New York’s legislature passed a bill to ban anyone under 21 from purchasing or possessing a semi-automatic rifle, on Thursday, 2 June. This major change in state law has occurred less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used a semi-automatic rifle and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New Yorkaccording to a report by NPR.
Raising the age limit to purchase such fast-firing rifles is a step towards stricter gun control in the country. Younger people would still be able to possess and buy other types of shotguns and rifles, however, they would be unable to buy the kinds of rifles used by 18-year-old gunmen in the mass shootings at Buffalo and at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where Salvador Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers.
Other states that require buyers to be 21-years-old instead of 18 in order to purchase some types of long guns include Florida, Vermont, Illinois, Hawaii, and Washington. A similar legislation has been proposed in Utah.
The passing of the bill that raises the age limit comes as U.S. President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to pass “common sense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence” in an address on Thursday, 2 June.
Biden suggested bringing back the 1994 ban on assault weapons which was instrumental in controlling shootings in the US.