US Republicans fails to back Democrats’ weapons ban proposal

Democratic senators Kirsten Gillibrand (L) and Chuck Schumer (File photo)

US Senate Democrats have proposed a new assault weapons ban in light of recent mass shootings in the country, but Republicans have refused to support it.

Nearly two dozen Democratic senators, including Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, on Wednesday put forward the updated version of the ban originally introduced and passed by Senator Dianne Feinstein in 1994.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein arrives at a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting, on September 19, 2017 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by AFP)

“We’re introducing an updated assault weapons ban for one reason: so that after every mass shooting with a military-style assault weapon, the American people will know that a tool to reduce these massacres is sitting in the Senate, ready for a debate and a vote,” Feinstein said.

"It's past time to remove weapons of war from our streets," she added in introducing the new bill which bans the sale, manufacture and transfer of 205 military-style assault weapons by name, but permits owners to keep the current banned weapons.

"It will be a long process to reduce the massive supply of these assault weapons in our country, but we've got to start somewhere," she stated.

However, Republicans, who control the chamber, did not sponsor the legislation which comes days after a man shot and killed 26 people in a Texas church, and five weeks after another man shot dead 58 people and wounded more than 500 others at a Las Vegas concert.

In response to the massacres, GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump said it was “too soon” and would be “disrespectful to the dead.”

Trump initially said the church shooting “isn’t a gun situation” but “a mental health problem,” rejecting calls for increased background checks.

In 2013, Feinstein and the Democrats introduced a bill with similar provisions after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a year before which resulted in the deaths of 20 children between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members.