WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives, Wednesday, voted to pass H.R. 7910, the Protect Our Kids Act, in an effort to prevent future mass shootings like those in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.
Hudson Valley Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D, NY-18) is one of 140 co-sponsors of the measure.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, would raise the age restriction for purchasing semi-automatic weapons, ban high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, and strengthen penalties for gun trafficking.
“We cannot sit idly by while children are gunned down in classrooms and mass shootings become commonplace in our communities,” said Maloney. “Today, the House passed a transformative bill to combat the epidemic of gun violence. The Protecting Our Kids Act will keep dangerous, semiautomatic weapons out of the hands of young people and ban the kind of high-capacity magazines which have no place in civilian settings.”
H.R. 7910 was passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 223 – 204.
- The Protecting Our Kids Act:
- Raises the legal age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21 years old.
- Bans high-capacity magazines and bump stocks for civilian use.
- Requires background checks for ghost gun purchases.
- Allows state and local governments to set up buy-back programs to get high-capacity magazines off the street.
- Establishes requirements to regulate the storage of firearms.
- Cracks down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to stop the trade of illegal guns.
Full text of the legislation is available [here].
