The House Judiciary Committee called an emergency hearing for Thursday to consider a package of gun control bills, including one that would increase the legal purchasing age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, Axios reports. The panel will review an omnibus package made up of eight bills that Democrats are calling the "Protecting Our Kids Act." In addition to increasing the purchasing age for semi-automatic rifles, the package would ban the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of large-capacity magazines. It includes a bill that would establish requirements to regulate the storage of firearms on residential premises and create criminal penalties for violations.
Mass shootings in Uvalde, Tx., and Buffalo, N.Y., have pushed lawmakers to pursue new gun control legislation. The emergency meeting was called even though the House is out of session this week. House Democrats plan to bring the bills to the floor for a vote early next week. Even if the package passed the House, it would still require 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate.