Status: 07/30/2022 02:51 am
In the United States, the House of Representatives has passed legislation to ban the over-the-counter sale of semi-automatic assault rifles. However, the sales ban is expected to fail in the Senate because of Republicans.
The US House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation reinstating the ban on semi-automatic weapons after several deadly massacres in the US. 217 MPs voted for the bill – 213 voted against. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called the law “a crucial step in our fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our country.”
The draft will now be forwarded to the US Senate. However, it is considered impossible that he will also get a majority there. Because the Democrats do not have a sufficient majority to bring the text to a vote.
Republicans continue to block stricter gun laws in the United States. The gun lobby is enormously powerful in the country. Assault rifles were banned in the United States from 1994 to 2004. Then the ban expired – there was no majority for an extension.
Gigantic levels of gun violence
The United States has long had to deal with almost gigantic levels of gun violence. Firearms are often readily available in the country. Assault rifles are used again and again in the brutal attacks.
Most recently, a massacre at a street parade on US National Day in a suburb of Chicago with several dead caused horror. In late May, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. Just over a week earlier, an 18-year-old had shot ten people in Buffalo for racist motives.
Last month, under the impression of the bloody deeds, Congress passed a cross-party law against gun violence, which fell far short of the reform proposals of US President Joe Biden.