Gun Ownership

Dick's stops their sales of assault rifles

I research whether or not the United States should raise the age of gun ownership in order to combat future mass shootings. In an article on The Washington Post, Eli Rosenberg wrote that Walmart would be raising it's minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 in light of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. He also wrote that, "The move is the latest by a private company to address increasingly loud grievances about the availability of guns in the absence of meaningful legislative action." I thought this was interesting because Walmart has decided to attempt to absolve the United States of this growing controversial issue. Mostly because they feel that the United States is not doing enough to become united on this issue, many politicians and citizens cannot agree on a way to prevent this from happening. In addition to Walmart's bold move, Dick's Sporting Goods raised their minimum age to 21 and concluded their sales of "assault rifles and high capacity magazines." I agree with both Walmart and Dick's, by raising the minimum age form 18 to 21, there might be a slight decrease in the number of high schooler who end up to be mass shooters like the one in Parkland. It also makes sense, at 18, vote but you can't buy alcohol unless you're 21. Who says that some are more likely to be able to handle a gun than alcohol at the age of 18? The New York Times also reported this same raise in minimum age to buy a gun. Creswell and Corkery stated that "Under federal law, a person must be at least 21 to buy a handgun from a firearms dealer. But 18-year-olds can buy semiautomatic rifles and other firearms." After hearing about the Parkland mass shooter, Mr. Stack, the company's chief executive, said that after the shooter was identified, Dick's was aware they legally sold a gun to Nickolas Cruz. Mr. Stack said that they "don't want to be part of this any longer;" the company did receive backlash but remains "a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment."