Bills to ban hate crime offenders from buying guns indroduced by Democrats
Two bills meant to prohibit Americans convicted of misdemeanour hate crimes from buying guns has been introduced by Democrats Bob Casey and David Cicilline one year after the Pulse nightclub terror attack that lead to 49 people being killed.
Currently, a person convicted for a violent or threatening misdemeanour hate crime is allowed to buy a gun in most states.
According to to the Southern Poverty Law Center, between 2010 and 2014, more than 43,000 hate crimes were committed with a gun.
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FBI statistics from 2015, the most recent year available, show that African-Americans and Jews are the main targets of hate crimes compared to their population.
Democrat Bob Casey has been an opponent of gun control, but changed his mind after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. But a previous bill he introduced to limit gun use failed.
The new House and Senate bills aren’t credited with much success, singe the Republican-controlled Congress has a clear stance on not limiting the Second Amendment rights of bearing weapons. Until now, Casey’s Senate bill has 10 Democratic co-sponsors.
Cicilline’s bill in the House has 18 Democrats co-sponsors.
The Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, on June 12, 2016, was the worst mass shooting in US history and the second-worst terrorist attack on American soil.
29-year-old Omar Mateen targeted the LGBT community when he opened fire at the gay nightclub in Orlando.
Mateen had pledged allegiance to ISIS, according to the FBI. He was killed by police following a standoff in the wake of the tragedy. Mateen had legally purchased the weapons he used in the attack.
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