US President Joe Biden once again condemned the “scourge” of gun violence that has hit the country, and Democrats argued that the answer is to ban so-called assault weapons or semi-automatic weapons.
The United States of America (USA) has already heard these calls hundreds of times, including this week after the shootings in Colorado and Virginia: the head of state wants to pass a law banning high-powered weapons that have the ability to kill multiple people quickly.
“The idea that we still allow the purchase of semi-automatic weapons is sickening. Just sick,” Biden said on Thanksgiving Day, which was celebrated in the US on Thursday. “I will try to get rid of assault weapons,” added the President.
Following last Saturday’s mass murder at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub, Joe Biden called for the need to ban such weapons from American streets. “When are we going to decide that we have had enough? (…) We need to enact an Assault Weapons Ban to get weapons of war off the streets of the United States,” Biden said in a statement.
When Biden and other congressmen talk about “assault weapons,” they use a term to describe a group of high-powered weapons or semi-automatic long guns, like AR-15s, that can fire 30 rounds rapidly without reloading. By comparison, NYPD officers carry a gun that fires about half that number of bullets.
However, a gun ban is far from being achieved in a sharply divided Congress. But Biden and the Democrats are increasingly emboldened to push for stricter gun control, and to do so without clear electoral consequences.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives ahead of the midterm elections passed legislation in July to revive the 1990s “assault weapons” ban, with Biden’s explicit endorsement. Plus, Joe Biden has pushed for a ban almost everywhere he’s campaigned this year.
“I think the American public has been waiting for this message,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who has been the Senate’s leading advocate for greater gun control since the massacre of 20 children at a school in Newtown, Texas, in Connecticut in 2012.
“There has been a thirst from voters, especially swing voters, young voters, parents, to hear candidates talk about gun violence, and I think the Democrats are finally getting to where the public has been,” he added.
Just over half of voters want a tougher national gun policy, according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide conducted for the Associated Press by the University’s National Center for Opinion Research. from Chicago. There are clear partisan divisions. About nine in 10 Democrats want stricter gun laws, compared with about three in 10 Republicans.
High-powered firearms are now the weapon of choice among the youth responsible for many of the country’s most devastating mass shootings. Congress allowed restrictions first imposed in 1994 on the manufacture and sale of guns to expire a decade later, unable to muster political support to fight the powerful gun lobby.
Instead of stricter gun control, several Republicans have argued for more investment in mental health, testing for troubled students or more armed school personnel. Law enforcement officers have long called for stricter gun laws, arguing that the availability of guns makes people less safe and their jobs more dangerous.
On Tuesday, six people were shot to death at a supermarket in Virginia. In the last six months, there was also a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, in the state of New York; a school massacre in Uvalde, Texas; and the murder of several people celebrating the 4th of July in Highland Park, Illinois.
The legislation Biden signed in June will, among other things, help states implement “red flag” laws that make it easier for authorities to remove guns from people deemed dangerous. But an outright ban was never on the table. Still, gun control advocates see progress.
“The fact that the American people have elected a president who has long been a staunch supporter of bold gun safety laws, and recently re-elected a gun control majority in the Senate, says it all. changed,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun violence nonprofit.
Source: Observadora
