A “White House source” informed Fox News that President Trump is open to raising the “minimum age for owning certain firearms.”
The federal minimum age for purchasing a handgun is 21-years old while the minimum age for purchasing a long gun is 18. The ability to buy long guns at age 18 came under scrutiny after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz carried an AR-15 into a gun-free zone in Florida and opened fire on students, killing 17.
Fox News reports that Trump is “open to…a rise in the minimum age for owning certain firearms” in the wake of the Florida attack.
This news emerged on the same day that Trump directed the DOJ to finalize plans to ban bump stocks amid the current gun control outcry. It also came on the day that NRP’s Mara Liasson asked White House Press Sarah Sanders if Trump would be willing to reinstate the 1994-2004 federal “assault weapons” ban. Sanders replied, “We haven’t close doors on any front.”
The Washington Post reports that the idea of raising minimum age for gun purchases came up while Trump was having dinner with Geraldo Rivera.
Riveria suggested “raising the minimum age at which a person could buy a semiautomatic weapon from 18 to 21.”
The AP reports the White House confirmed “the idea of raising the age limit to buy an AR-15 was on the table for discussion.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, 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. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.