Raising the Age to Purchase Semiautomatic Centerfire Rifles

Floor Speech

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Mr. IVEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Raise the Age Act.

This bill would protect the public by raising the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic centerfire rifles to 21 years old. Currently, the buyer only needs to be 18 years old, even though the minimum age to purchase a handgun from a dealer with a Federal license is 21 years old.

The Raise the Age Act would apply the 21-year-old minimum age standard to buyers of semiautomatic centerfire rifles just as it applies to buyers of handguns.

Imagine the agony that Alexandria Rubio's parents felt last May when they learned that their 10-year-old daughter's life was cut short at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

On that horrific day, 21 beautiful spirits were stolen from us: 19 precious young children and 2 beloved, dedicated teachers.

The halls of the grade school were forever robbed of their innocence due to the gruesome actions committed by an 18-year-old who used a semiautomatic weapon that he purchased shortly after his 18th birthday.

On May 14th, 2022, 53-year-old Andre Mackneil went to the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, to purchase a birthday cake for his grandson. He never returned home for his grandson's birthday due to the heinous acts of an 18-year-old mass shooter with an assault weapon.

That 18-year-old ended the lives of 10 innocent souls that day. Had a 21-year-old age requirement been in place, that 18-year-old shooter would not have been able to legally purchase that firearm just a few months earlier and the tragedy and trauma that occurred that day might have been avoided.

Some of the most horrific and heartbreaking mass shootings in our history were committed by 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds using assault weapons, including the massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018; and at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.

According to CNN, in November of 2022, up to that point, at least 3,179 people had been shot in mass shootings, resulting in 637 deaths and more than 2,500 people wounded. Already in 2023, there have been more than 170 mass shootings.

Some of my colleagues insist on choosing the Second Amendment over second graders. They insist on banning books in schools instead of banning assault weapons in schools. They talk about the weaponization of our government, but they are silent when actual weapons are used to lay waste to our schoolchildren.

Instead of supporting commonsense reforms to address our country's gun epidemic, some Members offer bills that would make the problem even worse, such as eliminating the ATF, the lead Federal law enforcement agency that fights against gun violence.

Time and time again, our communities are devastated by these mass killings. Some politicians send thoughts and prayers, but we should all remember the wisdom in Paul's letter to James: ``Faith without works is dead.'' This bill alone won't fix the problem of gun violence, but we know that inaction will not stop the mass killings. The time for action is long overdue.

That is why this bill is supported by many gun violence prevention organizations, including the Giffords Law Center, which observes its 10th anniversary today, March for Our Lives, Newtown Action Alliance, Community Justice Action Fund, and several others. Some major retail chains like Walmart have even voluntarily raised the age from 18 to 21 to buy a firearm at their stores.

Raising the age to 21 also withstood judicial scrutiny recently. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a similar law on the 21- year-old age requirement in Florida that was enacted shortly after the 2018 massacres in Parkland, Florida.

The Court determined that the act's restrictions on the sale of firearms to 18- to 20-year-olds ``is consistent with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation.''

Raising the age to 21 to purchase these kinds of firearms is reasonable and a crucial step, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support this vital legislation.

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