Texas Rep. Holland Votes to Raise AR-15 Minimum Purchase Age to 21 After 33-Year-Old Mall Attacker Uses One

Texas state Rep. Justin Holland (R-Rockwall) caved to gun controllers Monday and voted in support of a bill, HB 2744, to raise the minimum purchase age for AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21.

On Saturday, an attacker opened fire on Allen, Texas, mall goers with an AR-15. The attacker was 33 years old, so HB 2744 would not have prevented the shooting.

Holland has taken intense pushback over his gun control vote and he posted a letter to Twitter trying to defuse the frustration pro-Second Amendment Texans are feeling.

The letter said, in part:

I do not believe in gun control, and I certainly don’t agree with the Biden administration’s many attempts to undermine our gun rights. When I voted for a bill in committee to raise the age requirement from 18 to 21 to purchase semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines whose caliber is greater than .22, I did so in full knowledge that some people would try to mischaracterize my vote and motivations for casting it.

Shannon Watts, founder of the Mike Bloomberg-affiliated gun control group Moms Demand Action, praised the passage of HB 2744 after Holland voted for it.

Watts tweeted: “THEY DID IT!! Texas Moms Demand volunteers and survivors, including Uvalde and Santa Fe families, have been advocating for the Raise the Age bill for weeks and finally – on the last day for this vote – it passed out cold committee.”

Gun Owners of America (GOA) responded to Holland’s pro-gun control vote by criticizing it as “compromise” with anti-Second Amendment forces.

GOA noted, “This bill is a slap in the face to gun owners. Law-abiding citizens ages 18-20 have EVERY right to protect and defend themselves.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.