Texas House may consider bill to increase age requirement for semiautomatic rifle purchases
Published: Tue, 05/09/23
Texas House may consider bill to increase age requirement for semiautomatic rifle purchases
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Eleanor Dearman
A bill that would increase the age to purchase semiautomatic rifles advanced out of a Texas House committee Monday afternoon.
The bill, which would raise the age requirement from 18 to 21, advanced out the Community Safety Select Committee on a 8-5 vote. It now goes to the full House for consideration.
The vote followed a protest Monday morning in the Capitol. Chants of “shame on them,” “raise the age” and “do your job” echoed through the building as protesters calling for gun safety laws gathered following Saturday’s mass shooting in Allen.
Circling the first floor rotunda of the Austin building, people held signs with messages for Texas lawmakers.
“Give us gun control not prayers!” read one.
“It’s the guns” said another, written on brown cardboard.
Chief among their asks was that a bill raising the age for buying semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 22 pass out of committee. Monday is the last day for House committees to vote out House bills.
This session Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, and Uvalde families have held regular press conferences pushing for gun safety measures, but proposals have stalled in the Texas Legislature as it enters its final weeks and key deadlines for bills to pass approach.
Gun safety bills proposed by Gutierrez include age restrictions on buying ammunition, a database for ammunition bought in bulk, high risk protective orders that would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from people who are a risk to themselves and others, required liability insurance for firearms and safe storage requirements for guns.