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The House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to ban assault weapons on Wednesday, but it’s unclear whether the legislation has enough support to pass a vote.
Democratic Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said they would not support the bill, while Reps. Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said they were open to vote to ban, according to The Hill. House Democrats have a four-vote margin.
The 2021 assault weapons ban was passed by a 25-18 vote, but no date has been set for a parliamentary vote.
“As we’ve learned all too well in recent years, assault weapons — especially when combined with high-capacity magazines — are the weapon of choice for mass shootings,” said committee chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., during the bill’s markup. “These military-style weapons are designed to kill the most people in the shortest amount of time. Simply put, they have no place on our streets.”
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Assault rifles hang on display at a gun store in Dallas, Texas September 13, 2004. (REUTERS/Jeff Mitchell JM)
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, argued the bill would take away the rights of gun owners.
“Democrats know this legislation will not reduce violent crime or the likelihood of mass shootings, but they are obsessed with attacking the Second Amendment freedoms of law-abiding Americans,” he said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said, “They’re coming for your guns.”
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AR-15 rifles are on display for sale at the Guntoberfest gun show in Oaks, Pennsylvania, October 6, 2017. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo)
The bill would make it a crime to “import, sell, manufacture, transfer or possess a semi-automatic assault weapon (SAW) or high-capacity ammunition delivery device,” according to the bill’s summary. A few exceptions will be made.
It shall not include any “firearm that is (1) manually operated by a bolt, pump, lever, or slide action; (2) permanently inoperative; (3) ancient; or (4) a rifle or shotgun specifically identified by make and model.”
The bill was first introduced in March last year.
Chairman Jerry Nadler, DN.Y., looks on during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Thassos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The legislation comes on the heels of the most sweeping gun control bill passed by the Senate in 30 years following a spate of mass shootings, including a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are also calling for a ban on assault weapons.
“Assault weapons must be banned,” Biden said last week at the White House while celebrating the signing of bipartisan gun legislation. “They were banned. I led the fight in 1994. And then under pressure from the NRA and gun manufacturers and others, that ban was lifted in 2004. In those 10 years it was law, mass shootings went down.”
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Former President Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban in 1994, which expired in 2004.
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