Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
For: The opinion Posted Jan 24, 2023, 10:57 am EST
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, called for a ban on the manufacture and sale to the public of assault weapons semi-automatic after the last shootings registered in the state of California.
“Even as we wait to learn more details about these shootings, we know that the scourge of gun violence in the US requires more decisive action“, said the president in a statement in which he lamented the death of seven people in the Californian town of Half Moon Bay on Monday night.
Hours after this event, a shooting in the city of Oakland (California) left one dead and seven injured. The deceased, according to local media, is an 18-year-old boy.
Both episodes occurred after, this weekend, ten people lost their lives in a shooting after a festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the Californian town of Monterey Park, a suburb near Los Angeles with a majority Asian population.
The Monterey Park shooter used a semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine, illegal in California, which does prohibit possession of assault weapons.
The United States already banned the sale of assault weapons in 1994but the law was designed to expire in ten years and in 2004 it was not renewed.
On Monday, Democratic senators proposed a bill to re-adopt the ban on assault weapons, and another to raise the minimum age to purchase these weapons to 21 years.
“I encourage both houses of Congress to act quickly and send this assault rifle ban to my desk.“Biden assured.
Last year, following the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, US lawmakers approved a historic package of measures to limit access to firearms, although they fell far short of the progressive goal of banning guns. assault.
At the same time, however, The US Supreme Court upheld the right of Americans to bear arms in public by invalidating a New York law that prohibited the carrying of firearms in the street without a special permit.
Recently, the same court allowed a somewhat more limited New York measure to remain in force, which prohibits carrying weapons in spaces such as theaters, parks, stadiums, health centers or schools, among others.
With information from Efe.
It may interest you:
–’Disgruntled’ Asian farm worker arrested for killing 7 people in Half Moon Bay, California
–Gas station shooting in Oakland California leaves 1 dead and 7 injured; joins Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park
– Massacre in California: Shootings leave at least 7 dead two days after the attack in Monterey Park