A majority was found at first reading Friday July 29 to ban semi-automatic weapons. But the adoption of the text in the Senate seems to be doomed to failure.
Le Monde with AFP
This is a first step towards a possible ban on certain deadly weapons in the United States. The American House of Representatives adopted on Friday, July 29, the ban on assault rifles, semi-automatic weapons in question in several killings that have mourned the United States in recent months. The text, supported by the Democratic president, Joe Biden, was voted at first reading with 217 votes for and 213 against.
An adoption in the Senate seems, on the other hand, highly improbable: due to the rules of qualified majority in the upper chamber of the Congress, ten republican senators would have to vote with their 50 Democratic colleagues. This perspective is unlikely as the partisan fractures are great on the subject of weapons: Friday, only two republican representatives joined their voice to those of the Democrats. Any member of the Republican Party who would vote with the Democrats to restrict access to firearms “would automatically disqualify” in his camp, esteem for example the republican Lauren Boebert, member of the Congress since 2021.
However, in 1994, Congress had succeeded in adopting a law banning assault rifles for ten years and certain large -capacity chargers. She expired in 2004 and since the sales of these weapons, promoted by manufacturers as “sports rifles”, have gone. Over the past ten years, they have reported more than a billion dollars, according to a parliamentary report.
Any restriction is perceived by the Republicans as a violation of the second amendment to the Constitution
Massacres committed with AR-15 type rifles in a Texas school (21 dead), a supermarket frequented by African-Americans (10 dead) and a parade of the National Day (7 dead) have recently revived calls to prohibit them. After the bloodbath in the school of Uvalde, Joe Biden had implored the congress of, at least, raise at 21 years the legal age to be able to buy it.
Friday, the White House reiterated its support for a measure which “saves lives”. “Forty thousand Americans die each year from bullet injury and firearms have become the main killer of children in the United States,” she said in a statement.
Until now, the Republicans are blocking against this measure which they perceive as a violation of the second amendment of the Constitution on the right to carry weapons. In a hurry to act, they just agreed to support a very modest law which strengthens the means to seize the weapons of violent spouses, and increases the means for mental health and the safety of schools.