WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday handed a sequence of new gun measures, together with a measure to elevate the minimal age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, in response to a horrific spate of mass shootings throughout the nation.
The legislative package deal handed in a 223-204 vote, with 5 Republicans becoming a member of all however two Democrats in assist. It now heads to the evenly break up Senate, which isn’t anticipated to take up the laws as negotiators search to craft a a lot narrower measure designed to win sufficient bipartisan assist to overcome a GOP filibuster.
Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon opposed the invoice. The 5 Republicans who bucked their occasion had been Chris Jacobs of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
The Protecting Our Kids Act, written by Democrats, is an try to provide the occasion’s imaginative and prescient for gun legal guidelines and to strain Republican lawmakers who’re resistant to harder limits in response to a wave of mass shootings.
“Why? Why would someone be against raising the age so that teenagers do not have AK-47s?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stated Wednesday at an occasion with advocates looking for to cut back gun violence. “Yes, they say mental health issues. Yes, we want to address mental health issues. Other countries have mental health issues. They don’t have a gun violence epidemic.”
House Republican leaders had despatched an e-mail to GOP workplaces pressuring members to vote “no” on the invoice, derisively labeling it the “Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions Act.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., stated Congress ought to attempt to tackle the foundation trigger of the issue and not impose gun restrictions, arguing that lawmakers didn’t ban airplanes after the 9/11 terrorist assaults.
“Airplanes were used that day as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country. There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes,” Scalise informed reporters.
The Protecting Our Kids Act would ban large-capacity ammunition feeding gadgets and toughen penalties for gun trafficking and “straw purchases.” It additionally would set up residential gun storage guidelines, with felony penalties for violations. In addition, it will require registration for bump stock-type gadgets and modify the definition of a “ghost gun” that’s topic to regulation.
Republicans face some strain to again harder legal guidelines after latest shootings — together with the bloodbath at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — shocked the nation. A latest CBS News ballot discovered that U.S. adults desire stricter gun legal guidelines over much less strict measures by a 5-to-1 ratio.
In the ballot, 77 % of respondents stated the minimal age to purchase semi-automatic rifles just like the AR-15 ought to be 21, if not older.
“The slaughter of children is not a partisan issue,” House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., informed reporters.
Dim prospects in Senate
The legislative package deal is all however assured to fail in the 50-50 Senate, the place Republicans have efficient veto energy over gun laws as a result of of the filibuster. Separate negotiations are going down on a slimmer invoice that’s unlikely to embrace elevating the rifle buying age, a key provision of the House invoice.
The chief Republican negotiator, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, is resistant to growing the minimal age as he seeks a deal that may win about half the 50-member GOP caucus.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is an element of the negotiating group, stated that elevating the minimal age to purchase semi-automatic weapons was not on the desk however that “it may come up in future discussions.”
Still, there are numerous signs of movement in the Senate after semi-automatic rifles were used in the recent shootings in Uvalde and in Buffalo, New York.
Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, came out for raising the age to 21 this week. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said raising the age “makes a lot of sense.” And Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she is open to the idea.
“It’s certainly alarming that so many of the mass killers have been between age 18 and 21,” she stated.
Some Republicans in conservative states also face calls to act.
“Wyoming is a really Second Amendment-supporting state, so I’ve heard many individuals calling in saying, ‘Leave our gun rights in place.’ By the identical token, I’ve heard so much of calls, additionally, from people who find themselves saying, ‘Try to discover one thing you are able to do to work on this,'” Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said.
But asked whether she would support raising the age to buy certain firearms, Lummis responded: “I might not assist that.”
Frank Thorp V, Kyle Stewart and Kate Santaliz contributed.