The House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday to revive a ban on semi-automatic weapons, the first vote of its kind in years and a direct response to the firearms often used in mass shootings tearing apart communities across the country.
Once banned in the US, high-powered firearms are now widely blamed as the weapon of choice among young men responsible for many of the most devastating mass shootings. But Congress allowed restrictions first enacted in 1994 on the manufacture and sale of guns to lapse a decade later, unable to muster the political support to oppose the powerful gun lobby and reinstate the gun ban.
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, saying the previous ban had “saved lives.”
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The House legislation has been shunned by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats. Almost all Republicans voted against the bill, which passed 217-213. It will probably stop in the 50-50 Senate.
The bill comes at a time of heightened concern about gun violence and shootings _ the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York; school massacre in Uvalde, Texas; and the 4th of July shootings of revelers in Highland Park, Illinois.
Voters seem to take such votes seriously in an election year, as Congress splits along party lines and lawmakers are forced to make their views public. A recent vote to protect same-sex marriage from potential legal challenges at the Supreme Court won a surprising amount of bipartisan support.
President Joe Biden, who helped secure the first semi-automatic weapons ban as a senator in 1994, encouraged passage by pledging to sign the bill if it reached his desk. In a statement before the vote, his administration said “we know that banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines will save lives.”
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The Biden administration has said that in the 10 years the ban has been in place, mass shootings have declined. “When the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the statement said.
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Republicans stood firm against restrictions on the ownership of high-powered firearms during a sometimes emotional debate before the vote.
“This is a gun grab, pure and simple,” said Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, R-PA.
Said Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., “An armed America is a safe and free America.”
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Democrats argue that the gun ban makes sense, portraying Republicans as fringe and out of step with Americans.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the gun ban is not about taking away Americans’ Second Amendment rights, but about making sure children also have the right “not to be shot at school.”
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Pelosi showed a poster of a gun company advertising children’s guns, smaller versions that resemble the popular AR-15 rifles and are marketed with cartoon characters. “Disgusting,” she said.
In one exchange, two Ohio lawmakers clashed. “Your freedom stops where mine and my constituents’ freedom begins,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur told Rep. Jim Jordan. “Schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, Independence Day parades should not be scenes of mass slaughter and bloodshed.”
Jordan responded by inviting her to his congressional district to debate him on the Second Amendment, saying he believed most of his constituents “probably agree with me and agree with the United States constitution.”
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The bill would ban the import, sale or manufacture of a long list of semi-automatic weapons. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, DNY, said he is releasing those already in possession.
Reps. Chris Jacobs of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania were the only Republicans to vote for the measure. Democratic lawmakers who voted against were Reps. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.
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In the nearly two decades since the previous ban expired, Democrats have been reluctant to revisit the issue and stand up to the gun lobby. But voter opinion appears to be shifting, and Democrats have ventured into action ahead of the fall election. The result will provide information to voters about the candidates’ position on the issue.
Democrats tried to tie the gun ban to a broader package of public safety measures that would increase federal funding for law enforcement. This is something centrist Democrats in tough re-election campaigns wanted to protect them from political attacks by their soft-on-crime Republican opponents.
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Pelosi said the House will take up the public safety bills in August, when lawmakers are expected to return briefly to Washington to tackle remaining legislation, including Biden’s priority inflation-fighting health care package and strategies to amend the climate bills making their way through the Senate.
Congress passed a modest gun violence prevention package just last month after the tragic shooting of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. This bipartisan bill was the first of its kind after years of failed efforts to oppose the gun lobby, including after a similar mass tragedy in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
That 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 “boyfriend loophole,” denying gun purchases to those convicted of domestic violence outside of marriage.
The new law also frees up federal funding for states, including for “red flag” laws that allow authorities to confiscate guns from those who would harm themselves or others.
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But even this modest effort to stem gun violence comes at a time of grave uncertainty in the US over gun restrictions as the more conservative Supreme Court tackles gun rights and other issues.
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Biden signed the measure two days after a Supreme Court ruling struck down a New York law that limited people’s ability to carry concealed weapons.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
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