{"id":80126,"date":"2022-07-30T11:56:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T11:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=80126"},"modified":"2022-07-30T11:56:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T11:56:41","slug":"us-house-passes-assault-rifle-ban-likely-doomed-in-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=80126","title":{"rendered":"US House passes assault rifle ban, likely doomed in Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk:<\/strong> The US House of Representatives, spurred by a series of horrific mass shootings, passed a bill on Friday that would ban assault weapons for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n

The legislation was approved by a 217 to 213 vote in the Democratic-majority House and now goes to the Senate — where it is likely doomed to fail.<\/p>\n

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Gun reform remains deeply divisive in the United States — despite the deadly scourge of mass shootings — with only two Republicans joining Democrats to back the assault weapons ban in the House.<\/p>\n

In the 100-member Senate, Democrats have just 50 seats and 10 Republican votes are needed to bring a measure to the floor for consideration.<\/p>\n

Congress passed a 10-year ban on assault rifles and certain high-capacity magazines in 1994 but lawmakers let it expire in 2004 and sales of the weapons have soared since then.<\/p>\n

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the latest bill a “crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our nation.”<\/p>\n

It would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain semi-automatic weapons such as those used in recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Illinois.<\/p>\n

An avowed white supremacist shot dead 10 African Americans at a supermarket in Buffalo in May.<\/p>\n

Nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers were killed by an 18-year-old man at an elementary school in Uvalde that same month and seven people were shot dead at a July 4 parade in Highland Park.<\/p>\n

After the Uvalde massacre, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to again ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21.<\/p>\n

But Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, have refused to go along.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Biden said “40,000 Americans die from gunshot wounds every year and guns have become the top killer of children in the United States.<\/p>\n

“We know an assault weapons and large-capacity magazine ban will save lives,” he said.<\/p>\n

A House committee, in a report released this week, said US gun makers earned $1 billion in the past decade from sales of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons.<\/p>\n

“The gun industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools and even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons and has gotten rich doing it,” Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney said.<\/p>\n

“They are choosing their bottom line over the lives of their fellow Americans,” the New York lawmaker said at a hearing attended by relatives of victims of gun violence.<\/p>\n

Republican lawmakers pushed back against their Democratic colleagues.
\n“Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime,” said Representative James Comer of Kentucky. “Criminals cause violent crime.”<\/p>\n

“We'll continue to protect the rights of all law-abiding gun owners who safely use, store and carry firearms including the AR-15,” Comer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: The US House of Representatives, spurred by a series of horrific mass shootings, passed a bill on Friday that would ban assault weapons for the first time in decades. The legislation was approved by a 217 to 213 vote in the Democratic-majority House and now goes to the Senate — where it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":80127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n