The New York legislature approved raising the legal age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21 from 18 and passed a package of legislation aimed at reducing the likelihood of mass shootings by tightening rules to purchase firearms and other military equipment.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers said the legislation, which was passed on the final day of the session, was in response to the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. Days after the slate of bills were introduced, four people were killed in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, mass shooting by an individual using an AR-style rifle. The AR-15 law was passed 102-47. The legislation package will now go to Hochul to be signed into law.
The bills will mean that individuals who want to purchase a semiautomatic rifle will need to be 21 and have a license. They also prohibit the purchase of body armor for civilians, make threatening mass harm a crime, and add new provisions to the state’s “red flag laws,” which prevent the purchase of firearms or allow for the removal of firearms from individuals at risk of harming themselves or others.
