June 8 (UPI) -- The House voted Wednesday in favor of legislation to raise the minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 years old.
The measure was part of a package of gun control bills known collectively as the Protecting Our Kids Act.
The chamber voted 228-199 in favor of this particular portion of the bill, with Democrats largely voting "yes" and Republicans mostly voting "no."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., introduced the group of bills last month in the days after a shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school left 19 children and two teachers dead. President Joe Biden has shown support for tighter gun laws in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting as well as a massacre at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store that killed 10 people.
In addition to increasing the age limit on the purchase of certain firearms, the legislative package would "prevent gun trafficking, modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms [and]encourage the safe storage of firearms."