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The
motion, put forward by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,
would have reauthorized the Assault Weapons Ban, which first
passed in 1994 and expired 10 years later.
The ban covers certain semi-automatic firearms and large
capacity ammunition magazines, and ushered in a decrease of
deaths from gun violence while it was in place.
"The American people are sick and tired of enduring one mass
shooting after another," Schumer said on Wednesday in a speech
bringing the motion to the floor. "They’re sick and tired of
vigils and moments of silence for family, friends, classmates,
coworkers."
Republican Senator John Barasso blocked Schumer's attempt to
reauthorize the ban by unanimous consent.
"Americans have a Constitutional right to own a firearm," he
said in a speech on the Senate floor, arguing that the bill was
about "trying to label responsible gun owners as criminals."
The United States had 39 mass shootings in 2023 so far,
according to a database maintained by the Associated Press, USA
Today and Northeastern University, which defines a mass shooting
as one in which at least four people are killed, not including
the shooter.
That means 2023 is set to be the worst year on record since the
database began in 2006, the second consecutive year to break
that record.
The most recent high-profile killing happened in Lewiston,
Maine, where 18 people were shot by a U.S. Army reservist who
committed suicide shortly after the shooting spree.
The incident caused Democratic Representative Jared Golden, who
represents the district in which the shooting took place, to
publicly change his stance on an assault-style weapons ban.
Gun violence has been the number one cause of death for children
in the United States since 2020.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
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