Feinstein to introduce bill raising minimum age for rifle purchases

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/16/18 07:13 PM EST

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Friday that she will introduce legislation to raise the minimum legal age to buy rifles in the wake of a school shooting in Florida.

Feinstein said the legislation would require anyone buying a firearm from a gun dealer to be at least 21 years old.

“Under current law, licensed gun dealers cannot sell a handgun to anyone under 21, but they are allowed to sell assault rifles like the AR-15 to anyone over 18. This policy is dangerous and makes absolutely no sense," Feinstein said.

She added that "if you can’t buy a handgun or a bottle of beer, you shouldn’t be able to buy an AR-15."

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/374330-feinstein-to-introduce-bill-raising-minimum-age-for-rifle-purchases

[Maxheader]

1. gee

that means junior will have to buy his brother a bag of pot to use his ak-47. clever young people

[democratisphere]

2. Good idea. Hope it passes!

[oberliner]

5. Zero chance

It probably won't even be brought to the floor for a vote.

[mpcamb]

19. Do it anyway.

[Maxheader]

34. Steve Kerr

nba..warriors coach said it well...

Kerr was asked by ESPN reporter Chris Haynes before Golden State's game against the Portland Trail Blazers and asked for leadership that has the courage to protect people.

"Well nothing has been done," Kerr said. "It doesn't seem to matter to our government that children are being shot to death day after day in schools.

"It doesn't matter that people are being shot at a concert, in a movie theater. It's not enough apparently to move our leadership, our government, the people who are running this country, to actually do anything and that's demoralizing."

Kerr continued with how he thinks the country should move forward:

"But we can do something about it," he said. "We can vote people in who actually have the courage to protect people's lives and not just bow down to the NRA because they've financed their campaign for them. Hopefully we'll find enough people, first of all, to vote good people in.

[Stryst]

3. I have mixed feelings about this

Are 18 year old people adults, or not? By the time I was 21 I had done multiple tours of duty in the middle east, carrying a rifle the whole time. But if I had knocked back a beer during that time, I would have been a criminal.

So while I agree that if you can't buy a bottle of beer you shouldn't be able to buy a rifle, then are you willing to raise the minimum age of enlistment or insist that people under 21 be only in non-combat roles?

I think our gun culture is insane, I just want to make sure our solutions are well thought out.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. Makes sense to me.

[JI7]

7. You can still vote at 18

[Wolf Frankula]

14. Since the 1980s people between 18 and 21 have been second class citizens

And they did little to prevent it. Since the shooter was Hispanic, let's also ban the possession of guns by Hispanics.

Bah! Equal rights for all means equal rights for all! It does not mean equal rights for some, special privileges for some and special disabilities for some.

Wolf

[LanternWaste]

42. Preach on, bro!

Hence, an eleven year old drinking a double-scotch applauding your line with a "Preach on, bro!" for added emphasis.

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. The drinking age was raised back to 21 for a reason

It was lowered to 18 during the Vietnam era fir the reason you stated. It didn't seem fair that young men could be drafted to fight a war oversees and not be able to buy a beer back home.

The problem is that drunk driving accidents among the under 21s skyrocketed. What it takes to be a good soldier and what it takes to be a responsible drinker are 2 different things. Personally I think it would be great if you couldn't enlist until age 21, but the military doesn't want that and neither do the young recruits.

A simpler solution would be to allow 18 to 20 year olds in the military to buy alcohol legally while they are in the US.

[renegade000]

30. I thought about that argument...

But, presumably when you're in the military, your access to firearms is relatively controlled? One could argue that while it's ok for an 18 year old to operate firearms in a highly supervised environment, it's more problematic to grant an 18 year old pretty much unrestricted access to firearms.

I would agree, though, that age is a pretty crude metric for maturity or emotional stablity. Other countries require applications that involve character references and such, which I think would be a better system. Some 18 years olds are more emotionally stable and mature than some significantly older adults.

[harun]

40. Exactly. The military is discipline training. Apples to oranges.

[Frustratedlady]

6. Ban the damned things. What help will adding 3 years to the age limit be?

No one needs those monster killers.

Did they ever ban those stands from the LV shooting?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. that would be great but

The NRA pretty much owns the GOP and therefore all 3 branches, for now.

So many reasons to hope for a blue wave.

[Red Mountain]

8. Pointless

I'm all for draconian gun control.

This is a waste of time and effort. It's the left wing equivalent of 'thoughts and prayers'.

[BigmanPigman]

10. Maybe the angry students and young people will

help accomplish what adults haven't been able to...write and enforce strict gun control laws. The students are angry and that drives change, like the beginning of the civil rights movement. More power to Feinstein and anyone who takes action to fight this American (mainly male) sickness.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. One tiny change: raise the age to 125.

[dchill]

22. I was going to say 80, but then I'm an ultra-liberal!

[Devil Child]

12. This is about as "common sense" as it can get

Smart move by Sen. Feinstein, I will contact my senators to urge them to support this bill.

[NutmegYankee]

21. It isn't common sense at all.

Alcohol is already a ridiculous exception to adulthood at 18 without imposing yet another. If we want to play this game lets make 18-20 still subject to juvenile court.

Common sense is banning assault rifles nationwide for everyone. Stopping a rural 19 year-old from hunting with a shotgun isn't.

[They_Live]

13. How about mandatory

liability insurance for gun owners. Require it for firearms and ammunition.

[Marengo]

20. What would the purpose of insurance, what would it cover?

[They_Live]

25. Health and Life insurance

for any victims from the use of your firearm.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

29. Insurance doesn't cover criminal acts

That would require a law change, and having dealt with various insurance companies at a higher corporate level, it will be easier to pass gun control then to force them to cover criminal acts. They have more money then the NRA to lobby with.

[They_Live]

33. interesting... N/T

[YOHABLO]

15. No one of any age should be able to purchase an AR-15.

[Sophiegirl]

17. Agree. eom

[Red Mountain]

16. JUst had this discussion with my 13 year old

It's a topic at school. Go figure.

The problem is our regulations have fallen behind technological development. Used to be it was adequate to ban bombs and heavily regulate fully automatic weapons.

Times change. Semi auto weapons fire at rates near that of fully automatic weapons of old.

Time to ban whatever kills lots of people quickly. I don't particularly care what shape it is or who uses it for what.

Clearly it is too dangerous for the general public.

[EX500rider]

18. Time to ban whatever kills lots of people quickly. I don't particularly care what shape it is or who

Unfortunately that includes things like cars, trucks, propane tanks etc.

The terrorist in Nice France in 2016 killed of 86 people and the injured of 458 others with a truck. No gun needed.

Concentrating on the how instead of the why is going to be a losing proposition I fear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack

[Red Mountain]

35. Not too many school massacres involving kids being run over

This isn't about wrapping every pointy edge of our society in bubble wrap.

Guns are an obvious and overwhelming favorite of mass murderers in this country. Will they find another way if we take all the guns away tomorrow?

Possibly. But it won't be as easy.

How do you envision focusing on the 'why' is going to going to work?

Let's face it. Waiting for an all encompassing solution to our societal sickness is going to result in a lot more deaths.

Time to act.

[EX500rider]

36. "Possibly. But it won't be as easy."

Well finding a car or truck to plow into a crowd at 80mph isn't that hard. And will result in higher body counts if Nice is any indication as it had a higher body count then efforts using firearms.
You remove all guns and the wackos will find another means.

How do you envision focusing on the 'why' is going to going to work?

Multi-prong approach, focusing on anti-bullying, aggressive mental health for kids seen as very-anti social or alienated, and careful screening of kids identified as possibly violent. FBI/local Police may have to step up their game.
Also a blackout on the names of mass killers, I think many seem to do it for their 15 mins of infamy, the Reality TV I wanna be famous no matter how mentality. Let them know that no one will know their name and they will die unknown in prison.

[NickB79]

24. My state (MN) treats assault rifles like handguns already

If it has a pistol grip, you need a pistol permit to purchase. It takes 1-2 weeks for the police Dept. to do a background check and mail the permit out to you. You must be 21. It expires after 2 years.

It's a good system, IMO.

[David__77]

26. I dont like it.

Adults should have adult rights.

[sakabatou]

27. We could also ban/regulate large clips

if we haven't already.

[moriah]

31. Agreed 1000%.

Oregon and Maine already make it illegal to hunt game with long guns that have more than a 5 bullet magazine capacity. If you need more than that to kill a deer, they feel, you are either unskilled, too damn lazy to reload, or both.

Why should anyone need a larger magazine than that for a long gun, or 8-10 for a handgun?

[Wwcd]

28. Will be interesting to see which Senators Fail to support this.

Show your hand Senators. We're watching you all.
The ONLY reason to vote no to this is NRA complicity.
Follow the campaign money on this one.

[rownesheck]

32. Hopefully

She's proposing a buyer must be 406 years old. Otherwise, it's pointless. Gun humpers of any age are just that; immature intellectually and psychologically. They're dangerous at any age.

[Jedi Guy]

37. This has no chance of even getting a vote, IMO.

Not that it isn't a good idea, because it absolutely is. It's a place to start, at any rate.

The problem is the 2nd Amendment and the current interpretation of it by SCOTUS. I foresee any gun control legislation being challenged as unconstitutional. If Dirty Hairy in the White House is able to shoehorn another conservative justice onto the court, I can't imagine any reasonable gun control legislation will survive a constitutional challenge.

Our Democratic congressfolks should turn the GOP's dirty tricks against them. To wit, bring a barrage of gun control legislation to bear, knowing full well that none of it will go anywhere. The point is to make the Republicans kill it, and make damn sure the electorate knows how and why nothing is getting done. Do to them what they did to us with the Affordable Care Act and their endless, idiotic symbolic repeal attempts.

Saturate the media with "Today Republicans in Congress shot down another gun control measure proposed by Democrats..." over and over. Then ram it down their throats on every single election. No more kid gloves, no more dancing around the issue. Make the GOP explain why it's sitting on its hands and letting kids get shot to death in the hallways of American schools. Make them explain why they took umpty-ump million dollars from the NRA.

[former9thward]

38. Will this law apply to soldiers also?

Oh, its ok for teenage soldiers to be issued these weapons to kill. Got it...

[greyl]

39. Why not?

Aren't the weapons you're talking about usually issued pretty far away from schools in the USA?

[former9thward]

41. No.

There are military bases all over the U.S. and many close to or in urban areas.

[oneshooter]

43. Many military bases have housing and schools on post.

http://www.richmond.com/news/a-list-of-all-military-base-schools-and-their-grades/article_62b89262-5efe-5633-b202-60e5e1ec662f.html