Subcommittee advances bill to raise minimum handgun purchase age to 21

A Virginia House public-safety subcommittee voted to report a substitute to a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase a handgun from 18 to 21, the panel heard Wednesday. Sponsor Delegate Maguire framed the measure as both a public-safety and public-health step intended to “align Virginia law with federal law.”

Maguire told the subcommittee that “18 to 20 year olds right now commit gun homicides at triple the rate of those 21 and up,” and said the substitute narrows the change to purchase while preserving current allowances for possession and transport and creating narrow exemptions for cadets, public-college shooting teams and active-duty law enforcement acting in the course of duty.

Supporters cited research tying higher purchase ages to reductions in violence. Laurie Haas said the change would remove current friction in background checks and “make our Virginia State Police able to administer the background check system more [consistently],” and Christine Payne of the Virginia Center for Public Safety said states with a 21 purchase age have shown “about a 9 to 11% reduction in homicides and suicides in that age range.”

Opponents questioned both constitutionality and the policy’s likely effect. Dr. Michael Huffman, identifying himself as a constitutional-law professor and executive director of the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists, said the measure “creates a two-tier adulthood” and contended the Supreme Court precedent referenced in testimony (transcribed here as Bruen) constrains such regulations. Gun-rights witnesses argued 18- to 20-year-olds can possess firearms and receive them as gifts and that restricting purchases from dealers would not stop unlawful access.

After questions about hunting exemptions and statutory language, members moved and seconded a motion to report the substitute. The clerk announced, “HB1524 reports with the substitute on a vote of 4 to 3,” a result recorded in the hearing transcript; the clerk’s announcement used a different bill number than the sponsor’s introduction earlier in the record.

What’s next: The substitute was reported to the full committee (clerk announcement). The record contains inconsistent bill numbering between the sponsor’s introduction (HB1525) and the clerk’s report (HB1524); the committee’s minutes and the clerk’s official filing should be consulted for the definitive bill identifier and text.