America's Arms Laws: Minimum Age Restriction On The Purchase Of Semi-Automatic Weapons To Be Lifted From 18 To 21

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday in response to a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, which includes a number of restrictions on possession of weapons, including raising the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21. However, the bill is likely to not be approved by the US Senate.

The bill passed 223-204 votes, with nearly all Democrats voting in favor.

Members took the vote after the House of Representatives' Commission heard statements from parents and survivors of the shooting in Uvalde two weeks ago. Among the witnesses was 11-year-old Miah Cerrill, who smeared the blood of a shot friend on her and played dead, which helped her survive.

The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate, where Republicans and Democrats have essentially the same number of seats. According to the AP, this proposal has no chance in the Senate to pass and become a law, as the Senate is conducting negotiations aimed at improving mental health programs, strengthening school safety and tightening checks and not the availability of firearms itself.

Mass shootings in the US rarely force the US Congress to act, but the shooting in Uvalde, which shocked the entire country, forced US lawmakers from both camps to talk about the need for change.

The bill, approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, consists of a number of proposals submitted by Democrats before the recent events in Buffalo and Uvalde. The shooters in both cases - at a primary school in Uvalde and at a supermarket in Buffalo - were only 18 years old when they bought semi-automatic weapons, which they subsequently used in the attacks.

Ten people were killed in a shooting in Buffalo, and the incident at Uvald Elementary School claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.

According to the latest poll conducted by NBC News, most adult Americans support stricter gun laws, and about 77 percent of respondents think the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic gun should be 21, if not more.