ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s legislature voted Thursday to ban anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle, a major change to state firearm laws pushed through less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo.
Highlights
- The age limit bill passed the Senate along party lines, 43-20, and in the Assembly 102-47, and will now head to Hochul’s desk for her signature.
- The bill raises the age limit is the most significant part of a package of gun control measures announced earlier this week by Democratic legislative leaders.
- Younger people would still be allowed to have other types of rifles and shotguns under the new law, but would be unable to buy the type of fast-firing rifles used by the 18-year-old gunmen in the mass shootings in Buffalo and at a Texas elementary school.
- New York would join a handful of states that require buyers to be at least 21 instead of 18 to purchase some types of long guns.