House passes gun control bills that will expand background checks

On Thursday, 11th, March 2021, the U.S House approved a pair of gun control bills as Democrats seized a changing political terrain. The Democrats opined that this will improve chances for legislating new laws after years of failed attempts. The first measure passed by the Democratic-led House 227-203 will close a loophole in gun laws by promoting background checks on those buying weapons via the internet, gun shows, and certain private transactions. 

The Republicans who backed the Democrats with the bill are just right on the number. The second bill, passed 219-210, had only two Republicans supporting it. This bill will give authorities 10 business days to run federal background checks before a gun sale can be licensed. These sales can proceed if the government can not complete the complicated background infection of buyers within three days. President Joe Biden is known as a supporter of gun control measures. The battle may become tougher at the Senate level as Biden's fellow Democrats count for an even extra majority than in the House. 

The bills came to be after the series of mass shootings spread across a decade in the U.S. Gun control has always been a sensitive area in the United States whose constitution accommodates gun rights. The Republicans are opposing the gun restrictions while the Democrats assert the need for new laws that will mitigate the growing gun violence. They hope to go further and ban the selling of high-capacity military-style rifles that can fire ammunition rapidly. This push which has been spearheaded by Democratic Representative Mike Thompson, "30 people are killed by gun violence daily in the United States, with that number growing to 100 if suicides if suicides and accidental deaths involving firearms are counted." Thompson also said it only makes sense that if you expand it you will stop even more felons, more domestic abusers." 

According to Thompson, 170 felons and 50 domestic abusers will be stopped from buying a gun every day. Republicans are against this bill because in their opinion it would not make the streets safer and will infringe on the right to bear as ensured under the U.S Constitution's Second Amendment. The House Judiciary Committee's senior Republican, Jim Jordan, wrote on Twitter that House Democrats were " making it harder to buy a gun." The Democrats believe that their position has been strengthened by the strife within the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobby aligned closely with Republicans. At a news conference held before the gun control votes, Representative Lucy McBath who had lost her son to gun violence said: "No one deserves the kind of pain and anguish people are suffering."