First modification:
This Friday the United States Lower House approved a bill to reactivate the ban on semi-automatic weapons throughout the territory. The measure is intended to reduce the mass shootings that have been on the rise during the last year in the country. However, it will have to go through the Senate, where there are not many expectations that it will prosper.
In Friday’s vote, lawmakers approved the proposal presented by Democrat David Cicilline. Only two Republicans supported it, against the majority of that caucus, while on the Democratic side almost all voted positively except for five of them.
“In this vote, the yeses are 217, the noes are 213. The bill is approved. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is put on the table,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said with satisfaction.
Pelosi promoted this Friday’s vote alleging that each year in the United States more children die from violence with firearms than from any other cause, such as cancer, car accidents, among others. He also pointed out that the weapons they want to ban have been used “in one massacre after another.”
“Our nation has watched with unspeakable horror as assault weapons have been used in massacre after massacre in communities across the country. So many of these mass shootings have targeted our precious children in their schools, at the movies, in shopping malls, and throughout our communities,” Pelosi said.
Republicans oppose
However, Republicans disagree that the proposal is intended to criminalize the sale, manufacture, and possession and importation of various semi-automatic weapons and high-end ammunition, especially since, according to Republicans, some of the most widely purchased and used by citizens.
“This legislation takes aim at our Constitution by banning what Democrats call assault weapons, which is a vague political term used as a catchphrase to make the public believe that they are banning weapons that attack people. But the truth is that the bill would ban America’s most popular semi-automatic rifle, the AR15, and what the industry calls modern sporting rifles,” Republican Caucus Andrew Clyde said.
In addition, Clyde expressed that despite the fact that the Democrats assure “that the anti-gun bill claims to make us safer, it does the exact opposite, it puts citizens at greater risk by taking away their rights established in the law.”
Figures that support the project
The authorities have assured that assault weapons have indeed been used in recent years in the deadliest shootings, such as the one at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, where 20 children and 6 teachers died and the most recent perpetrated in May. this year in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 minors and 2 adults were murdered.
Similarly, the shooter who killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018 used an assault weapon, the young man is currently in the final part of the trial.
A federal gun ban was in effect from 1994 to 2004, the result according to a 2021 study by the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is that the decision led to a significant decrease in mass shootings.
Since 2004, various attempts have been made to renew the ban, but so far they have not been able to gather the votes and the necessary political support to start it up again.
Pelosi, during her speech, explained that during the 10 years that the norm was in force, violence with assault weapons was reduced by 40% and that after it expired, the figures skyrocketed by an increase of 500%.
Despite the victory of the Democrats this Friday in approving the bill in the House, it must go to the Senate to be approved or rejected by its 100 members, of which 50 are Republicans and 50 are Democrats.
The Senate regulations point out that for the project to advance, it needs the approval of at least 60 senators, which allows Republicans to block the initiative, they could even prevent it from even being debated.
With Reuters, AP, and EFE
#House #Passes #Bill #Ban #Assault #Weapons