The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing to advance legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21, make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines, reports the Associated Press.
The legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, also builds on the executive branch’s ban on bump-stock devices and so-called ghost guns privately made without serial numbers. However, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely serving to put lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year’s elections as Republicans stand firm in their opposition.
At least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Payton Gendron, the white mass shooter accused of killing ten people at a Buffalo grocery store on May 14, was indicted Wednesday on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime.
In a manifesto released online, Gendron declared himself a white supremacist, called his planned rampage terrorism and expressed a desire for it to incite more violence. Subscribing to a racist ideology called the “great replacement” theory, Gendron shot 13 people — 11 of them Black. If convicted of domestic terrorism motivated by hate, he would face an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.