New York raises minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles to 21 after nationwide shootings

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George Frey / Getty Images

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New York state lawmakers approved a new law Thursday that raises the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.as part of a package to increase gun control, following the recent massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children were killed.

“Our country-leading gun package just passed both chambers. New York is taking swift action to strengthen safety alert laws, close loopholes, and protect communities,” Governor Kathy Hochul wrote in a brief message that she will need to sign the law for it to go into effect.

It’s a statement Later, Hochul added that the new legislation offers security forces the tools to “prevent easy access to weapons.”

The new law also prohibits the sale of ammunition that passes through bulletproof vests.the sale of bulletproof protection and revises what is known as the “red flag” law, to identify those people who may eventually harm themselves or others if they are in possession of a weapon.

In this way, New York becomes the first state in the country to restrict the purchase of weapons after the Uvalde shooting and the recent massacres in Buffalo (New York) and Tulsa (Oklahoma).

In the statement, Hochul stressed that the gun problem is a national one and urged lawmakers in Washington to “seize this moment and take meaningful action to prevent gun violence.”

Hours earlier, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, urged the federal Congress and Senate to ban the sale of assault weapons or alternatively, that the minimum age to buy them be increased from 18 to 25 years.

Biden also called for high-capacity magazines to be banned, background checks on potential buyers to be strengthened, law enforcement to ensure safe gun storage, and “repeal of the immunity that protects gun manufacturers.” weapons”.