No chance of success in the Senate
US lawmakers vote to ban assault rifles
7/30/2022 3:42 am
After numerous massacres in the USA, the House of Representatives votes to reintroduce the ban on the sale of assault rifles. However, it is almost impossible that the right to own guns will be restricted – the bill is likely to fail in the Senate.
The US House of Representatives has voted to ban assault rifles, but the Senate is likely to vote it down. The text of the law passed the Chamber of Congress with a narrow majority of 217 to 213 deputies. Of the opposition Republicans, only two MPs voted in favor of the ban. Several Democrats voted against the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called the law “a crucial step in our fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our country.”
In 1994, Congress passed a 10-year ban on the sale of assault rifles and certain magazines. However, the ban was not extended in 2004 and thus expired. With assault rifles, devastating bloodbaths are repeatedly caused in the USA.
In the past few months, the United States has been shaken by three such massacres: in mid-May, an 18-year-old shot dead ten people in and in front of a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, for racist reasons. Ten days later, an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde. On July 4th, a 21-year-old man opened fire on spectators at a parade in a suburb of Chicago, killing seven people. In all three attacks, the perpetrators shot with assault rifles.
Democrats do not have a majority in the Senate
In June, after the Uvalde bloodbath, Congress passed a minimal tightening of gun laws – the first such federal law in almost 30 years. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for a ban on assault rifles, but he has a hard time with the Republicans.
The Conservatives are firmly opposed to tightening gun laws and argue that the right of “law-abiding citizens” to own guns should not be restricted. In her eyes, this also includes the assault rifles, which are very popular with many gun owners.
That is why the ban on assault rifles that has now been passed in the House of Representatives is likely to fail in the Senate: According to the rules of procedure, a majority of 60 of the 100 senators in the Chamber of Congress is required for a law to be able to reach the final vote at all. Because Democrats and Republicans each have 50 senators, at least ten conservatives would have to vote for the ban on assault rifles. That is almost impossible.