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US House passes assault weapons ban amid Republican pushback

July 30, 2022

The vote by the Democratic-majority House was a direct response to recent mass shootings in the US. The bill has little chance of progressing in the Senate because of Republican opposition.

https://p.dw.com/p/4Etkv
A row of AR-15 style rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense sit in a vault in Black Creek, Georgia
Among the semi-automatic weapons on the list to be banned are those with a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds, including AR-15s.Image: Lisa Marie Pane/AP/picture alliance

The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill to ban assault weapons, following a spate of recent mass shootings. 

The legislation was approved by 217 lawmakers, with 213 against the measure. It's an attempt to reinstate an earlier 10-year assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.    

Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban "saved lives.''

Almost all Republicans, however, voted against the measure, and it is unlikely to pass in the Senate, where Democrats would need 10 Republican votes even to consider it.

The bill would make it unlawful to import, sell or manufacture a long list of semi-automatic weapons and it exempts those already in possession.

In June, Congress passed a gun control law, with bipartisan support, but the new bill takes it much further.

Ban on assault weapons contentious

After the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 people, including 19 children, dead, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21.

Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, have refused to go along.

Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler argued the latest bill would be both unconstitutional and ineffective, saying "it's a gun grab, pure and simple.''

Gun rights are protected by the Constitution's Second Amendment, giving Americans the right to "keep and bear arms."

Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said the weapons ban is not about taking away Americans' Second Amendment rights but ensuring that children also have the right "to not get shot in school.''

The bill comes at a time of intensifying concerns about gun violence and shootings, including a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, the killing of school children in Uvalde, and the July Fourth shooting of revelers in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

lo/wd (AFP, AP)