The House on June 8 voted to pass several bills including the “Protecting Our Kids” Act, a Democrat-sponsored omnibus package of gun control legislation. The bill will now head to the Senate, where it is all but doomed to fail to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The final vote on the bill in the Democrat-majority chamber was preceded by a series of motions to retain various sections of the legislation; each section was ultimately retained, and the House voted 223-204 to pass the legislation to the Senate. Five Republicans voted for the bill and two Democrats voted against it.
The bills were split into several pieces and confirmed in bipartisan votes; the legislation included various previously-introduced gun control bills.
The first of these would ban the sale of “any semi-automatic centerfire rifle or semi-automatic centerfire shotgun that has, or has the capacity to accept, an ammunition feeding device with a capacity exceeding 5 rounds” to citizens below the age of 21. Currently, anyone 18 and over can buy such a weapon.
The House voted 228-199 to retain the title; 10 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure; 2 Democrats voted against their party in electing to strike down the measure.
The legislation would also codify the Department of Justice’s controversial ban on bump stocks, a weapon modification that increases the fire rate of a semi-automatic firearm.
The House voted 233-194 to retain that title, including 13 Republican votes. No Democrats voted against it.
In addition, the bill would make it a federal crime to possess weapons that critics have pejoratively labeled “ghost guns”—a term usually describing homemade or 3D-printed weapons without a serial number.
The House voted 220-205 to retain the title, including three Republican votes in favor and two Democrat votes against the title.
Another title of the bill that bans high-capacity magazines was passed 220-207, with four Republicans voting for the measure and four Democrats voting against it.
Democrats have pushed for the package as urgently necessary in the wake of a Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead.
By Joseph Lord
