In response to the recent mass shooting in a Dallas mall, the Texas House moved forward a bill on Monday that would raise the minimum age for buying semiautomatic rifles. A House committee controlled by Republicans was responsible to bringing the bill to floor and age limit would be raised from 18 to 21. The Select Committee on Community Safety passed the bill with an 8-5 vote, as two Republicans sided with six Democrats.
According to the Texas Tribune:
Several relatives of children who were killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting last year sobbed when the committee voted 8-5 to send the bill to the House floor. Republican state Reps. Sam Harless and Justin Holland joined with Democrats on the House Community Safety Select Committee to advance the bill.
Less than two hours earlier, some of the relatives of Uvalde victims had urged the committee chair, Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande, to give House Bill 2744 a vote before a key deadline Monday.
Monday’s legislative deadline falls two days after a gunman in Allen, a Dallas suburb of about 100,000 people, killed eight shoppers at an outdoor mall with an AR-15-style rifle — the same type of weapon used by the gunman in Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
Because the man identified as the gunman in Allen was 33, raising the age limit for semi-automatic rifle purchases likely wouldn’t have kept him from purchasing such a weapon. But Saturday’s shooting renewed calls for tightening some gun laws in a state whose lawmakers have loosened firearm restrictions despite repeated mass shootings.
The bill faces little to no chance of becoming law as Gov. Greg Abbott has previously stated he wouldn’t sign such a law. But even a bill like this clearing a committee vote is unusual and noteworthy in Texas.
