Anti-Gun Senators Want to Raise Age to Buy ‘Assault Weapon’

It was just a few years ago when a lot of Democrats started talking about lowering the voting age to 16. It’s been even longer since we first started seeing posts on social media where people attributed quotes to their young children about nuanced political positions, such as those favoring gun control. More recently, there’s been a massive debate as to whether children should be able to make life-altering medical decisions for themselves.

Those on the political left favored the side giving more power to younger and younger people.

But it seems their trust in America’s younger folks only goes so far as 19 Senators have introduced a bill that would restrict so-called assault weapons to just those over 21.

A group of 19 U.S. senators are joining forces to push for raising the buying age of assault weapons, citing mass shooting statistics for the “Age 21 Act.”

The Age 21 Act is legislation that would require raising the minimum age to buy assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines from 18 to 21. That’s already the law applying to handgun purchases from federally-licensed dealers.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is among the group of senators who co-sponsored the legislation.

“Assault weapons have been used by individuals under 21 to carry out some of the most devastating school shootings in U.S. history, including the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people on February 14, 2018,” Kaine’s office said in a statement announcing the bill’s introduction.

Kaine claims this is a “common sense” move because some young people have done bad things.

No doubt, some of them have.

However, a lot of other mass murders have been carried out by people over the age of 21 and with an assortment of different firearms throughout the years, including the worst school shooting in American history, which was Virginia Tech. In that case, which Kaine should be well aware of since he was the governor of Virginia at the time, the killer used two handguns. He also easily navigated Virginia’s gun rationing scheme, taking his time, before committing that atrocity.

Then we have the fact that we’re talking about lawful adults. They’re old enough to handle high explosives for the United States military, carrying firearms with capabilities beyond what most American citizens can lawfully obtain, and that happens without incident. They’re able to own homes, since contracts, make decisions for themselves, and a host of other things. Why is this the line? 

Especially when we consider all of the things they want to empower younger and younger people to do, including small children.

In other words, they make this out like a case of younger adults not being trustworthy, but it’s nothing of the sort. They are more than willing to empower children with authority they shouldn’t possess at every opportunity. They trust younger adults just as much as anyone else, which might not be very much, but bear with me here.

No, this is just an excuse to restrict the ownership of a gun they really don’t want anyone to own. They just think this is a more viable possibility here and now than an outright ban on so-called assault weapons.

Luckily, there’s no chance in Hades that this will pass. Republicans have control of the Senate, as well as the House, so it’ll never get on President Donald Trump’s desk, but if it did, he’s likely to veto it anyway.

This is really just one of those bills the minority party introduces so they can pretend they’re trying.