During a February 18, 2020, CNN town hall, presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg indicated he is open to the idea of raising the legal age for firearm purchases.

CNN host Erin Burnett pointed out that the Parkland high school attacker bought his rifle legally at age 19, then noted that Florida responded to the shooting by raising the minimum purchase age to 21.

She asked Buttigieg if he would support raising the age federally and he said, “I would be very open to that. We have to do whatever we can to save lives.”

Buttigieg also voiced support for an “assault weapon” ban and universal background checks. He claimed that “the vast majority, not just of Democrats, but of Republicans, and gun owners, already believe we ought to do.”

He said universal background checks have “eighty or ninety percent support in America,” and Congress still cannot pass it.

He did not provide any substantiation for his claim on gun owners’ alleged support for universal background checks.

On February 20, 2019, Breitbart News reported that over 90 percent of NRA member oppose universal background checks.

Former NRA president Marion Hammer used an Ammoland column to explain that the the views of NRA members are actually 180 degrees removed from those represented by the claims of Democrats and Democrat surrogates in gun control groups around the country.

Hammer wrote, “Over 92 percent [of NRA members] oppose background checks on sales between private citizens.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.