New York Democrat Gov. Hochul signs law raising age for purchase of semiautomatic rifles

New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a law increasing the age limit to 21 for the purchase and ownership of semiautomatic rifles.

Hochul signed the measure Monday as part of package of 10 public safety-related bills, including several that will establish limits on the purchase of weapons, another to strengthen "red flag" laws and one that will require micro-stamping on new firearms to help law enforcement more easily connect fired bullets to the weapons from which they came. 

Prior to the change for semiautomatic, the age in New York was 18. 

The bills passed the state Legislature last week and were signed by the governor following back-to-back mass shootings involving semiautomatic rifles.

In the first, 10 people were fatally shot in a May 14 attack on a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, in which the gunman was 18 years old. On May 24, in the second of the two attacks, a gunman who also was 18 fatally shot 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

"In New York, we are taking bold, strong action," Hochul said in signing the bills into law. "We’re tightening red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people."

Red flag laws allow police, family members and others to petition a court to have firearms temporarily removed from a person whom they believe presents a danger to others or themselves. 

"Today is the start, and it’s not the end," Hochul also said, at a news conference in the Bronx. "Thoughts and prayers won’t fix this, but taking strong action will. We will do that in the name of the lives that have been lost, for the parents who will no longer see their children stepping off the school bus."

Part of New York’s new law will also require all purchasers of semiautomatic rifles to get a license, which is now required only for handguns, according to the Associated Press.