Measure would increase age to buy rifles to 21
Bill would also keep anyone from buying more than one firearm in a 30-day period.
SACRAMENTO — California would raise the minimum age for purchasing a rifle and other long guns from 18 to 21 under legislation proposed Wednesday in response to the recent mass shooting at a Florida high school.
The measure by state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) would also ban the purchase of more than one firearm by individuals in any 30-day period.
Portantino proposed the bill after a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school on Feb. 14. The suspect is a 19-year-old who authorities say purchased the weapon legally.
“Like most Americans, I was horrified by recent events in Florida,” Portantino said in a statement. “As a father of a high school sophomore I can’t stop thinking about the unnecessary nightmare that this tragedy caused for the affected families. I feel it is imperative that California leads when Washington refuses to act.”
The sale of handguns in California is limited to those 21 and older, but people 18 and older can purchase long guns.
State law also prohibits people from buying more than one handgun a month, but Portantino is proposing to extend that restriction to long guns as well.
An effort to limit purchases of long guns to one a month failed to make it out of the Assembly last year after opposition from the National Rifle Assn. and the Firearms Policy Coalition.
Portantino’s proposal was criticized as excessive by Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, who noted that 18-year-old Californians are allowed to drive cars, vote and serve in the military.
“We question the logic of this,” Paredes said. “The vast majority of 18- to 21year-olds who own guns are responsible. They are hunters. They are target shooters. They are participants in programs that allow them to go to college.”