Proposed legislation would raise age to buy rifles to 21 in NC

In the wake of the deadly Parkland, Fla. shooting, several states have discussed changing laws in order to make it more difficult for people to purchase certain firearms, including one North Carolina lawmaker who is proposing his own piece of legislation.

Rep. Rodney Moore said he didn’t need to look any further than the faces of the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to know change was necessary.

“[They’re] very tragic examples of where we’ve become as a society in letting weapons of war be distributed on our streets,” Moore said.

The deadly shooting moved the Democrat from Mecklenburg County to draft a new gun law that would raise the age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 in North Carolina. The proposed legislation would not apply to law enforcement officers, firefighters or members of the military who are under the age of 21, Moore said.

Penalties for using rifles to commit a crime in places like a school or public building would increase and the law would require a 90-day waiting period to purchase guns.

“We need to go through a thorough criminal background check. We need to do a mental evaluation and that is why we need the waiting period,” Moore said.

At this point, the bill is only a draft. The NRA said they rarely comment until bills are officially introduced, but the organization has pushed back hard against similar legislation in Florida.

“We have to be very careful as we balance our individual rights with our need for public safety,” Scott said.

Moore said he is a supporter of the Second Amendment, but does not feel his proposal violates anybody’s rights.

“What it is doing is enhancing the safety of that particular amendment,” he said. “When the Second Amendment was written into the Constitution, the founding fathers had no idea how technology, how weapons would change.”

Moore said he is working to get the bill introduced in the near future.