Following an hours-long markup, the House Judiciary Committee approved on Wednesday the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 in a 25-18 vote.
It’s the first time in two decades that a congressional panel has moved to prohibit the popular firearms’ sale, transfer, and possession and in comes in the wake of the several mass shootings in the US perpetrated by young men with assault-style semi-automatic rifles – the main firearm the legislation aims to restrict.
After calling for an assault weapons’ ban in June along with some Congressmen, President Joe Biden has also signed – in the most significant move on guns by Congress in decades – a bipartisan gun safety bill enhancing background checks on young gun and encourages developing laws that deny guns to people deemed dangerous in all states,
Sponsored by the Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, the Assault Weapons Ban specifically seeks to ban the sale, manufacture, transfer or import of all semi-ARs that can accept a detachable magazine and have a pistol grip, forbids the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines and fixed magazines/ other ammunition feeding devices that can fit more than 10 rounds of ammunition, permitting shooters to fire rounds fast.
The bill imposes mandatory background checks for any future sale, trade or gifting of an assault weapon but would not include those who already own firearms and it will not apply to antique firearms, manually operated firearms and more than 2,000 specific hunting, household defense and sporting models of firearms.
The last assault weapons ban former President Clinton signed in 1994 expired in 2004 following the GOP-led Congress refusal to renew it.
It is still unclear when will the bill be brought to the House floor for a vote and if it will reach there at all.
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