Texas House committee approves bill raising purchase age for semi-automatic rifles

In an unexpected vote that came less than 48 hours after Saturday's mass shooting in a Dallas-area mall, a Texas House committee advanced a bill that would increase the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The 8-to-5 vote amounts to a last-minute rescue for the proposal, since Monday is the final day of the current legislative session that bills can be voted out of committee for floor debate. Just two hours prior, families of Uvalde school shooting victims pushed Committee Chair Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande, to see that House Bill 2744 was approved for wider discussion, according to the Texas Tribune.