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| Photo Credit: AP. |
U.S. House Friday passed a proposal to ban semi-automatic guns as the nation reels from sustained mass-shootings that has mostly featured such weapons.
Several mass shootings across the country were mostly carried out by semi-automatic guns.
How semi-automatic weapons ban all started
In 1994
restrictions were placed on the manufacture and sales of semi-automatic weapons
but the measure included a clause that would expire after 10 years. Since then
Congress has failed to garner the required support to extend the ban due to
political differences and the activities of powerful gun lobby groups such as
the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Weapon ban will save lives - Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
Nancy Pelosi who pushed the vote toward passage in the House said the earlier
ban “saved lives,” according to Washington Times.
The measure
passed strictly along party lines as most Republicans dismissed the measure as
an election-year strategy by Democrats. The bill was passed 217-213 but there
are fears it may not scale through in the Senate where the number of
Republicans and Democrats are evenly split at 50-50.
Mass shootings surged across the U.S.
This year,
the country has witnessed 3 major mass shootings – the Uvalde School mass
shooting that claimed the lives of 19 pupils and two of their teachers in Texas,
– the racially motivated Buffalo supermarket mass shootings in New York and the
July Fourth mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park,
Chicago.
President
Joe Biden was instrumental in helping secure the first semi-automatic weapons
ban as a senator in 1994, according to The Washington Times. The Biden administration
said before the vote, “we know an assault weapons and large-capacity magazine
ban will save lives,” according to Washington Times.
The administration
noted that the mass shootings declined for ten years while the ban was in
place, adding “when the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the
statement said.
In June
Biden signed a sweeping gun reform bill following the passage of a landmark
bipartisan gun control measure by the Senate and House. The bipartisan measure
was agreed upon following recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and
Uvalde, Texas.
The bill
entail extra scrutiny for gun buyers under the age of 21, grants to states to
implement so-called red flag laws and new spending on mental health treatment
and school security,
Gun buyers
21 and younger would be subjected to scrutiny of their criminal and mental
health records as juveniles.
The
provisions on red flag laws allow law enforcement to seek temporary removal of
firearms from an individual who is a threat to himself or others. The bill also
closed “boyfriend loophole” by broadening firearms restrictions on those who
have abused their romantic partners.
The bill did
not include tougher restrictions such as ban on assault-style weapons and
background checks for all firearm transactions which the Democrats wanted.