US House of Representatives votes to raise age for buying semi-automatic weapons to 21 after mass shootings

US law makers have responded to recent mass shootings by voting to set a minimum age of 21 for buying semi-automatic weapons.

The United States House of Representatives passed the legislation as part of a wide-ranging gun control bill that would also prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds.

The new proposal to raise the age for purchasers comes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot dead two teachers and 19 young children at a school in Uvalde, Texas on May 24.

A teenager is also accused of carrying out a racist attack in a Buffalo supermarket 10 days earlier in which 10 people were killed.

The legislation has almost no chance of becoming law as it will likely be blocked by Republicans in the Senate, that is pursuing its own response to the gun violence focussing on improving mental health programmes, bolstering school security and enhancing background checks. But the House bill does allow Democratic lawmakers a chance to frame their policies ahead of the mid term elections in November.

It comes as a 11-year-old girl who survived the Uvalde shooting by covering herself in a classmate’s blood told Congress, in harrowing testimony, of the moment her teacher was killed during the massacre.

“He told her goodnight, and shot her in the head,” Miah Cerillo, 11, said. “And then he shot some of my classmates.”

Miah was wounded by fragments in her shoulders and head. She pretended to be dead before using her teacher’s phone to call 911 and ask for police.

“I thought he was going to come back to the room, so I grabbed the [her classmate’s] blood and put it all over me,” she said. “I just stayed quiet.”

Miah’s father, Miguel Cerrillo, said his daughter is suffering from lingering trauma from the event.

“She’s not the same little girl I used to play with,” he said tearfully. “Schools are not safe anymore. Something really needs to change.”

President Joe Biden discussed the recent incidents of gun violence as he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night during his first in-person appearance on a late night talk show since taking office.

Asked by Kimmel why he had not issued an executive order to bring in much tougher gun laws to stop such tragedies occurring, Biden said he did not want to “emulate (Donald) Trump’s abuse of the Constitution”.

“I have issued executive orders, within the power of the presidency, to be able to deal with these, everything having to do with guns, gun ownership, all the things within my power,” he said.

“But what I don’t want to do, and I’m not being facetious, is emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.”

It comes after actor and gun owner Matthew McConaughey, whose home town is Uvalde, spoke at the White House earlier this week acknowledging that gun legislation would not end mass shootings but suggested that steps can be taken to lessen the chances of such tragedies happening so frequently.