How to help stop more school shootings? Raise the age to buy a rifle to 21.
Our View: Voters are telling members of Congress that reform is needed on guns. Are they listening? Will they act in time to stop further bloodshed?
The 18-year-old shooter in Uvalde, Texas, said he was going to use his AR-15-style rifle to kill before he did it. He posted his intentions in online messages a half-hour before his rampage began. It seems, in that critical moment, no one was listening. If someone was, they didn't do enough to stop the carnage.
The nation is at a critical moment. Voters, regardless of party, are telling members of Congress that reform is needed on guns. The question is: Are they listening? Will they act in time to stop further bloodshed?
In a nation that enforces 21-year-old age limits on access to alcohol and cigarettes, repeated mass shootings by teens and young adults point to an obvious need for restrictions. Why does an 18-year-old have the right to purchase a semiautomatic rifle? And why hasn't Congress limited gun purchases in ways most Americans, across the political spectrum, agree are needed?