House panel swiftly takes up gun bill after mass shootings

With photos of the young victims in Uvalde, Texas, behind her, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, speaks in support of Democratic gun control measures, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 2, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The House is swiftly working to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children.

Partisan positions were clear at a Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines.

It builds on the administration’s executive action banning fast-action “bump-stock” devices and “ghost guns” that are assembled without serial numbers.