Three in four Texas voters said they would support a bill raising the age for purchasing a firearm to 21. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Most Texas voters — including the majority of both Democrats and Republicans — favor raising the minimum age required to buy a gun from 18 to 21, according to a poll released Wednesday.

In the new survey by the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project, 76% of voters said they would support legislation to raise the minimum age to buy a gun. Despite Texas GOP lawmakers’ resistance to such a move, 64% of those who identified as a Republican wanted to see the age raised, while only 31% opposed it.

Only 20% of Texas voters overall oppose the idea, according to the poll.

What’s more, those polled said “gun control and safety” should be the second highest priority for lawmakers this legislative session, just behind “immigration and border security.”

The overwhelming support for raising the age limit comes as the GOP-dominated House Select Committee on Community Safety continues to mull legislation that would raise the required to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

Despite pleas from the families of the Uvalde mass shooting for passage of the bill, the committee has yet to schedule a vote, according to the Texas Tribune. It has until Monday to do so, which would then send the proposal to the full House.

During a town hall in March, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales blamed the state’s lax gun laws, including open carry, for San Antonio’s uptick in gun violence.

“Today, you can buy a gun off the street from anybody and use it without any training, Gonzales said. “What we see in my office is people pulling guns quicker than before.”

State Senator Ronald Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde and parts of San Antonio, also weighed in on he recent poll, blaming Republican lawmakers for the lack gun reform in the state.

“Republican voters have told us time and time again that they want commonsense gun safety laws in place,” Gutierrez said in a statement. “But Republican leadership in Texas refuses to budge and our children continue to die every day. Every gun that finds its ay into a criminal’s hand was placed there by Republicans like {Gov.] Greg Abbott and [U.S. Sen.] Ted Cruz.”

Sources close to Gutierrez have said he plans to challenge Cruz in 2024. 

However, many political observers doubt the state will carry out any change to the age limit this legislative session. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Abbott said such a measure would be “unconstitutional,” the Texas Tribune reports.

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This article appears in May 3-16, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...