New York to raise age to buy assault rifle to 21, ban body armor

 Citing the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, local officials said they wanted to close loopholes and address the gaps in laws exposed by the back-to-back massacres

Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders pledged to raise the legal age to purchase an AR-15 assault rifle in New York to 21 years old from 18, and pass a package of measures to tighten gun laws before the end of the state’s legislative session this week.

Citing the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, local officials said they wanted to close loopholes and address the gaps in laws exposed by the back-to-back massacres. The bills would prohibit the purchase of body armor for civilians, require a license to purchase a semiautomatic rifle, make threatening mass harm a crime and strengthen the state’s “red flag laws”. The measures would also require new pistols to be equipped with microstamping technology, which uses lasers to imprint markings on a firearm to make it easier to trace guns to registered owners.