House lawmakers on Wednesday vote to set the minimum age to buy semi-automatic weapons at 21 in response to a string of high-profile shootings.
The legislation passed 223-204, mostly along party lines. It has little chance of clearing the Senate as it pursues negotiations focused on improving mental health programs, bolstering school security and enhancing background checks.
The bill would also prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds.
The vote comes after a House committee heard testimony from recent shooting victims and family members, including from 11-year-old girl Miah Cerrillo, who covered herself with a dead classmate’s blood to avoid being shot at the Uvalde elementary school last month.
The House bill stitches together a variety of proposals Democrats had introduced before the recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. The suspects in the shootings at the Uvalde, elementary school and Buffalo supermarket were both just 18, authorities say, when they bought the semi-automatic weapons used in the attacks.
The House bill also includes incentives designed to increase the use of safe gun storage devises and creates penalties for violating safe storage requirements, providing for a fine and imprisonment of up to five years if a gun is not properly stored and is subsequently used by a minor to injure or kill themselves or another individual.
10 Republicans voted in favor, according to Disclose.tv.
Brian Fitzpatrick – PA
Anthony Gonzalez – OH
Chris Jacobs – NY
John Katko – NY
Adam Kinzinger – IL
Nicole Malliotakis – NY
Maria Salazar – FL
Christopher Smith – NJ
Michael Turner – OH
Fred Upton – MI
This is an excerpt from Fox News.
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