After 18 Years, The US House Passes A Ban On Semiautomatic Guns.

US House of Representatives passed legislation to revive a ban on semiautomatic guns.

In many of the most devastating mass shootings, young men widely blame high-powered firearms as the weapon of choice.

A decade later, Congress allowed the restrictions on weapons sales and manufacture established in 1994 to expire, unable to muster the political support to overthrow the powerful gun lobby.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”

The House legislation is shunned by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats. It will likely stall in the 50-50 Senate. Almost all Republicans voted against the bill passed 217-213.

The bill comes at a time of intensifying concerns about gun violence and shootings — the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York; massacre of school children in Uvalde, Texas; and the July 4th shootings of revelers in Highland Park, Ilinois.

Biden govt said for 10 years, while the ban was in place, mass shootings declined. “When the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the statement said.