The US House of Representatives passed a series of measures that regulate the sale of weapons, but which are to be overturned in the Senate.
The new measures would prevent the sale of semiautomatic weapons to anyone under the age of 21 and would ban largecapacity magazines.
But the Republican opposition in the Senate is expected to overturn the bill, even as gun control has returned to the news after a spate of mass killings across the US.
Hours before the vote, survivors of the Uvalde school massacre gave lawmakers emotional testimonies that brought some to tears. A shooting at an elementary school in the Texas city killed 21 people, including 19 children.
An 11yearold girl told the hearing in a prerecorded statement that she covered herself in a classmate’s blood to feign death and described the moment the gunman shot her teacher in the head.
The Uvalde attack and other recent mass killings have sparked a new round of gun control talks in the US Senate, but Democrats need at least 10 Republicans to pass new legislation.
Conservatives want to protect the constitutional right to bear arms and oppose restricting the sale of assault rifles like those used in the Uvalde shooting.
“God Granted Rights”
In the House of Representatives, Wednesday’s sweeping bill, dubbed the “Protection of Our Children Act” by lawmakers, passed by a vote of 223 to 204, with just five Republicans joining Democrats in project support.
As well as tightening controls around gun sales, the law would also introduce a system that would allow local government to compensate individuals who supply highcapacity magazines and the existing regulations on socalled “crash magazines” and untraceable guns tighten.
However, the measures cannot become law without the consent of the Senate.
“The US has lost more children to gun violence than anything else. Doesn’t that embarrass you?” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a debate on the bill. “To think that in our country more children have died from gun violence than from any other cause? Tragically, these stories are all too common in America today.”
But House Republicans say the bill is an assault on citizens’ constitutional rights to own firearms.
“The Speaker of the House of Representatives said at the outset that this bill is designed to protect our children,” Ohio Republican Jim Jordan said. “But this bill doesn’t do that. What this bill does is deprive lawabiding American citizens of Second Amendment rights, Godgiven rights protected by our Constitution.”
Bipartisan talks are underway in the Senate over more moderate measures that could garner enough Republican support to pass legislation.
But one Republican, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, warned Wednesday that there are “contentious issues everywhere.”
Only a small fraction of the 50 Republican senators appear to be open to new gun laws. Senators are expected to reach a final agreement by the end of the week.
Among the proposals with the most public support are a law that would bar people with mental illnesses or a criminal record from buying firearms, and more extensive background checks on other buyers.