Texas House Panel Votes to Raise Age Limit on Guns

Facts

• A Texas House committee Monday voted 8-5 in favor of a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 years old.¹
• Two Republicans joined Democrats on the House Select Committee on Community Safety in passing the measure that had been held from a vote for several weeks and followed a Saturday shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, that killed eight.²
• The bill, which would also stop the sale of firearms to people who are intoxicated or have a protective order against them, likely won't garner enough support to pass a full vote in the House or the state Senate. If it does, it’s unlikely Gov. Greg Abbott would sign it into law.³
• The unscheduled vote beat a Monday deadline for bills to get voted out of committee and receive a floor vote before the end of the legislative session.⁴
• The bill was filed by Democratic Rep. Tracy King, whose district includes Uvalde, which was the site of last year's school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.⁵

Sources: ¹USA Today, ²PBS NewsHour, ³CBS, ⁴Forbes, and ⁵Newsweek.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by The New Republic. It took mass protests from angry families to guilt House Republicans to bring this bill to a vote in the committee, and even then, just two Republicans supported it. Although this vote is a great indicator of what can happen when gun-safety supporters make their voices heard, it’s also a clear case of Republicans being beholden to gun lobbyists because the bill won’t get anywhere near enough support to become law.
• Republican narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Once again, in an effort to place restrictions on Americans’ constitutional right to own guns, Democratic groups are politicizing a tragedy. If the minimum age to purchase a gun had been 21, it still wouldn’t have stopped the mall shooter, who was in his 30s. Restrictions on gun ownership aren't the answer to preventing these tragedies.

Predictions