Oppose and Vote NO On H.R. 1643 Lowering Age for Gun Ownership

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you, in the strongest possible terms to oppose and Vote NO on Representative Massie’s H.R. 1643, known by the misleading title as the SAFER Voter Act, but instead simply lowers the age of owning a firearm to 18 from 21.   This bill is a travesty, doing nothing to make our streets, schools or places of work any safer from gun violence, that is a leading cause of death for young people.   This bill does nothing for the type of weapons that people are allowed to own, such as the assault rifles common to so many school shootings and other tragedies.   This bill does nothing about background checks, mental competency, prior criminal record,  and other factors that would, in a normal country, disqualify anyone from owning a gun.   Representative Massey doesn’t seem to have grasped that fewer guns is the answer, not arming younger and younger people. His attitude makes me seriously doubt his mental competence to pen such a law, much less advocate for looser requirements.    Instead, we ought to be promoting  some of the things that would make things safer, such as:   1.     Closing the gun show loophole that allows people to easily buy guns at these trade show without stringent background checks. 2.     Instituting universal background checks for anyone to buy a gun, in any state, for any purpose. 3.     Remove the so-called Dickey Rider from the Federal budget, and continue to allow the CDC to conduct research on gun violence. 4.     Funding evidence-based programs such as Ceasefire, and other community based programs.   Now is the time to act. All these programs would help the day-to-day gun violence that affects many, and not just crazed shooter incidents. Likewise, we cannot wait until a true international terrorist massacres people, either.   Thank you for your attention, Oppose and Vote NO on H.R. 1643.