GOA: Please Cosponsor H.R. 5112

March 6, 2018

Dear Representative:

On behalf of 1.5 million law-abiding gun owners, I am writing to express our support for H.R. 5112, legislation by Congressman Thomas Massie to lower, to 18, the age at which an adult can purchase a handgun.

Almost 50 years ago, we, as a society, decided that 18 would be the age of majority for purposes of voting — and virtually every other important attribute of adulthood.

Most importantly, hundreds of thousands of young men and women, age 18-20, are issued taxpayer-financed full AUTOMATICS to protect our country by patrolling the streets of Baghdad and Kabul.

So what does it say for us to tell them that they can wield a handgun (or a machine gun) to defend us in the service of their country — but that they then become second-class citizens when they return to the United States?

I have an adult son who got married at 20-years-old. Is our nation now going to change the rules and tell law-abiding, young adults like him that he can’t purchase a firearm to protect his family?

Current law says to competitive shooters hoping to be world champions … or to young single women in dangerous urban neighborhoods … or to young people who have grown up with guns … that the Second Amendment is a second-class amendment, relegated to the backwaters of the Constitution.

The 21-year-old threshold is favored by people who hate guns because each new generation learns to love and respect firearms at the knees of their parents.

Hence, gun grabbers believe that, if they can disarm young people in the years prior to turning 21, the can discourage and depress gun ownership for a new generation of Americans.

It is significant that gun grabbers are now using the 21-year-old threshold to justify further gun control.

But if we want consistency between dealer handgun purchases, dealer long gun purchases, and limits on handling firearms (18 U.S.C. 922(x)), the consistent position would be to set the age at 18.

We commend Congressman Massie for his bill and urge your cosponsorship.

In Liberty, 

Erich Pratt
Executive Director