Democrats were counting on the bill not going ahead, but they wanted to use the vote to highlight the Republican opposition to tougher gun ownership and control laws after the most recent massacre that occurred on Tuesday at a primary school in Texas.
Authorities have made no racial connection to this latest attack, which killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. But the shock of the scale of the massacre, less than two weeks after the attack in Buffalo, New York, has catapulted the crisis of gun violence in the United States back to the top of the agenda in Washington.
“The bill is very important, because the Buffalo mass shooting was an act of domestic terrorism. We have to call it by its name: Domestic terrorism,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumerbefore the vote.
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act would have allowed the creation of units within the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to combat it, mainly with regard to white supremacist movement.
Pentagon officials could also have created a group “to combat white supremacist infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement.”
Schumer had urged Republicans on Wednesday to allow the Senate to begin debate on the bill,
Schumer offered Republicans Wednesday to accommodate Republican provisions to “tighten” school safety after the Texas shooting in exchange for allowing debate on the bill to begin.
Just before the vote, he said he had cried while looking at photos of Tuesday’s victims, calling the state’s governor, gun advocate Greg Abbott, “an absolute fraud.”
Abbott has worked to ease gun restrictions in Texas, including signing a measure last year that allows residents to carry handguns without licenses or training.
The project did not get the necessary 60 votes, of the 100 seats in the Senate, to avoid filibustering and start the debate.
Republicans say laws already exist against white supremacists and other domestic terrorists, and have accused Democrats of politicizing the Buffalo massacre, which killed 10 African Americans.
They have also argued that the legislation could be abused to persecute opponents of the Democratic administration.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
