The US House of Representatives has approved legislation to revive a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons, the first such vote in years and a direct response to firearms often used in mass shootings that ravaged communities across the country.
Key Points:
- Before becoming President of the United States, Joe Biden was instrumental in helping secure the first ban on semi-automatic weapons in 1994.
- The restrictions expired a decade later
- Almost all Republicans voted against reinstating the ban
Semi-automatic firearms are automatically reloaded after each shot and are capable of firing as quickly as the trigger can be pulled.
Many were once banned in the US and are now widely attributed as the weapon of choice among young people responsible for many of the most devastating mass shootings.
However, Congress allowed restrictions first established in 1994 on the manufacture and sale of guns to lapse a decade later, unable to muster the political support to counter the powerful gun lobby and reinstate the gun ban .
Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”
President Joe Biden praised the House vote, saying, “The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action.”
He urged the Senate to “move quickly to bring this bill to my desk.”
However, it is likely to stall in the Senate 50-50. The House legislation was rejected by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats.
Almost all Republicans voted against the House bill, which passed 217-213.
The bill comes at a time of heightened concerns about gun violence and shootings: the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York; massacre of school children in Uvalde, Texas; and the shootings of Fourth of July revelers in Highland Park, Illinois.
Biden was instrumental in helping secure the first ban on semi-automatic weapons as a senator in 1994.
The Biden administration said that for 10 years while the ban was in place, mass shootings declined.
“When the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the statement said.
The bill would make it illegal to import, sell or manufacture a long list of semi-automatic weapons.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said the bill exempts those who already have them.
The emotional debate precedes the vote
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the previous ban had “saved lives.” (AP: J Scott Applewhite)
Republicans strongly opposed limits on the ownership of high-powered firearms during an emotional debate before the vote in the lower house.
“It’s a seizure, pure and simple,” said Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler.
Another Republican congressman, Andrew Clyde, said, “An armed America is a safe and free America.”
Meanwhile, Democrats argued that the gun ban makes sense, portraying Republicans as extreme and out of step with Americans.
Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern said the gun ban was not about taking away Americans’ Second Amendment rights, but about ensuring that children also have the right “not to be shot at school.” .
The bill comes at a time of heightened concerns about gun violence and shootings. (AP: David Zalubowski)
Pelosi showed a gun company’s poster advertising children’s guns, smaller versions that resemble the popular AR-15 rifles and are marketed with cartoon-like characters.
“Disgusting,” she said.
In one exchange, two Ohio lawmakers squared off.
“Your freedom stops where mine begins and my constituents’ begins,” Democrat Marcy Kaptur told Republican Jim Jordan.
“Schools, malls, grocery stores, Independence Day parades should not be scenes of mass carnage and bloodshed.”
Jordan responded by inviting her to his congressional district to debate the Second Amendment, saying he believed most of her constituents “probably agree with me and agree with the United States Constitution.”
“Attack on liberties and civil liberties”
The executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, Jason Quimet, said in a statement after the vote that “barely a month after” the Supreme Court expanded gun rights, “advocates of the gun control in Congress are leading an assault on the liberties and civil liberties of law-abiding Americans.”.
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He said the bill could ban millions of firearms “in flagrant opposition to Supreme Court rulings” that have established gun ownership as an individual right and expanded it.
Among the banned semi-automatic weapons would be more than 200 types of semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15s and pistols.
Congress passed a modest gun violence prevention package last month after the tragic shooting of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
This bipartisan bill was the first of its kind after years of failed efforts to stand up to the gun lobby.
This law provides for expanded background checks on young adults who purchase firearms, allowing authorities to access certain juvenile records.
It also closes the so-called “groom loophole” by denying gun purchases to those convicted of domestic abuse outside of marriage.
The new law also frees up federal funding to states, including for “red flag” laws that allow authorities to take guns away from those who harm themselves or others.
AP