US to stamp the ban on assault weapons

C: https://www.npr.org/

President Joe Biden said that the US should ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. This is important to tackle the carnage of gun violence.

Biden addressed the nation after the spate of mass shootings. Biden said too many places are now killing fields.

He said the age limit for buying such weapons should at least go up from 18 to 21. This should get applied if the ban cannot take place.

However, deadlock on the issue between Republicans and Democrats in Congress means progress can get seen as unlikely. Republicans in the Senate needs to back them for any laws to pass.

This is because they defend access to guns as a constitutional right for every American.

Even though some are privately sympathetic to stricter gun controls. They also fear the electoral consequences of supporting them. As a result, the only area of the possible bipartisan agreement involves red flag laws. This lets authorities take guns from people at high risk of harming themselves or others.

Mr. Biden touts a 1994 ban on assault weapons that he helped pass. But, unfortunately, it lapsed after 10 years. Debate raged over whether it was effective in reducing the gun incident.

His remarks come in the wake of the deadly shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas. Buffalo, New York, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, also saw mass shootings in recent days.

Private gun ownership enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

A House of Representatives hearing to debate the new gun control proposals showed how hard it might become to make any progress.

The Democratic-led Protecting, Our Kids Act merges eight different gun control bills. It also includes many of the proposals. The bill will pass the House by next week. But it did not expect to clear the Senate.

However, the US Supreme Court is considering on one of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws in NY. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 233 mass shootings in the US. It defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people shot or killed.

Credits: BBC

Henry Chan