Republican New York Congressman Chris Jacobs said Saturday he would support legislation to ban assault weapons from private ownership after the slaughter of people in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, the Buffalo News reports.
Jacobs becomes the first Congressional Republican to explicitly state he would support any type of gun control measure, with many members of the GOP saying that they would block any attempt to limit the ownership, availability and use of guns.
“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it. So I want to be clear: I would vote for it,” Jacobs said at the news conference. Later, he added, “Individuals cannot buy beer, they cannot get cigarettes until 21. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the age limit at least for these highly lethal, high- capacity semiautomatic weapons should be 21.”