Uvalde, Texas. Buffalo, N.Y. Parkland, Fla. Three mass shootings in three states — 48 people killed in total. In each attack, the shooter legally purchased a gun before he turned 21.
As was the case with Parkland in 2018, last month’s violence in Texas and New York has renewed demands for lawmakers to raise the minimum age to purchase certain guns to 21. Federal law already restricts the ability of anyone younger than 21 to legally buy a handgun, but to purchase a long gun — like the semi-automatic AR-15-style rifles used in Buffalo, Uvalde and Parkland — you only need to be 18.
Some states have moved to eliminate that gap. On Monday, New York became the seventh state in the nation to prohibit the sale of semi-automatic rifles to anyone under the age of 21, joining Florida (which changed its laws after Parkland), California, Hawaii, Illinois, Vermont and Washington. In most of the rest of the country, loopholes in state laws allow 18-year-olds to buy or own a handgun. In roughly half the states, there is no age limit on who can possess a long gun.
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