03-13-2018, 12:27 AM
There has been a push to raise the minimum long gun purchase age to 21 for a very long time. It didn't begin in the wake of the Parkland shooting, it was just re-invigorated when the very thing that control advocates feared would happen did happen. Nobody wants to see it happen again.
Nikolas Cruz did legally buy his AR15 at 18-years-old and killed 17 people at his former school. He would not have been able to legally purchase a handgun until he was 21 though; that disparity doesn't make any sense to a lot of us. It didn't make any sense to Trump either, according to his own oft-repeated words following the Parkland shooting. Now, of course, he seems to be backing off as the NRA attempts to sue the state of Florida for raising the long gun purchase age.
Anyway, it is true that most mass murders are committed by older adults, but the school shooters are typically younger. Aside from Cruz, I do know that the Columbine killers were too young to legally buy guns so they convinced an 18-year-old friend to purchase the long guns for them. Would they have been able to convince a 21-year-old to make an illegal straw purchase like that? I don't know, but I think it would have been less likely.
Personally, I think limiting magazine capacity has the potential to save more lives in mass shootings than raising the long gun purchase age.
I also think gun restraining orders (with due process) for people who have demonstrated violent tendencies/mental illness would also likely save more lives. Nikolas Cruz, Elliot Rodger, Kevin Neal, and others had made lots of violent threats, been reported to police by family/friends/neighbors/strangers, and been visited by police. But, they were allowed to keep their guns nonetheless and ended up carrying out mass murders with them.
Still, raising the minimum age might have saved 17 people last month and who knows how many more in the future. Plus, it just makes sense to me for the minimum age to purchase long guns to be the same as to purchase handguns.
As for the argument that a single mother under 21 will now be deprived of buying a long gun for self defense.........I don't know how many young women have actually used a long gun in self defense. Not many, I suspect. But, I can appreciate the concern for that potential and wouldn't have a problem with an exception process/application or something like that being implemented.
Nikolas Cruz did legally buy his AR15 at 18-years-old and killed 17 people at his former school. He would not have been able to legally purchase a handgun until he was 21 though; that disparity doesn't make any sense to a lot of us. It didn't make any sense to Trump either, according to his own oft-repeated words following the Parkland shooting. Now, of course, he seems to be backing off as the NRA attempts to sue the state of Florida for raising the long gun purchase age.
Anyway, it is true that most mass murders are committed by older adults, but the school shooters are typically younger. Aside from Cruz, I do know that the Columbine killers were too young to legally buy guns so they convinced an 18-year-old friend to purchase the long guns for them. Would they have been able to convince a 21-year-old to make an illegal straw purchase like that? I don't know, but I think it would have been less likely.
Personally, I think limiting magazine capacity has the potential to save more lives in mass shootings than raising the long gun purchase age.
I also think gun restraining orders (with due process) for people who have demonstrated violent tendencies/mental illness would also likely save more lives. Nikolas Cruz, Elliot Rodger, Kevin Neal, and others had made lots of violent threats, been reported to police by family/friends/neighbors/strangers, and been visited by police. But, they were allowed to keep their guns nonetheless and ended up carrying out mass murders with them.
Still, raising the minimum age might have saved 17 people last month and who knows how many more in the future. Plus, it just makes sense to me for the minimum age to purchase long guns to be the same as to purchase handguns.
As for the argument that a single mother under 21 will now be deprived of buying a long gun for self defense.........I don't know how many young women have actually used a long gun in self defense. Not many, I suspect. But, I can appreciate the concern for that potential and wouldn't have a problem with an exception process/application or something like that being implemented.