1ID English: New Gun Legislation, Martin G. & Jannike

Republicans tries to stop voting on the new gun laws

Ever since the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 first-graders and six educators, Barack Obama and the leading Democrats have pushed for tighter gun law. Even now, 6 months after the incident, the debate is still as heated as ever. Obama and the Democrats have called for a voting on a gun legislation, which will involve doing background checks on every person who tries to buy a gun. This means that everyone who tries to buy assault weapons either through gun shows or online will have to fill out a survey first to check if they are mentally stable. Most of the public, including the president, feels that this legislation is not ideal. A large hole in this legislation is the fact that people can still be able to sell guns privately, by for example selling to family members, without having to take any kind of survey. But although it isn’t ideal, most agree that it is a step in the right direction.

In fact, 90% of the public agree that something needs to be done with the gun laws in America. Then this should be an easy thing to change, right? If they cast a vote, the legislation will be invoked? It seems that it can never be that simple. The Republicans have done what Obama refers to as a “political stunt”, so the public cannot vote. This is more formally called a filibuster. It is basically a way to prevent a vote to even occur, to stop it before it even reaches the public.

There are now at least 14 Republican senators who have signed this filibuster, something that surprises many. Obama even tells the public in his speech that to the Republicans “your opinion doesn’t matter”. To overcome this filibuster, they will need 60 senate votes. The Democrats only have 55 votes, and some are on the edge, not sure where to vote. On the other hand, there are some of the Republicans who already have stated that they will vote to remove the filibuster. It therefore seems like this vote will be very close, and there will be a test vote on Thursday, 11^th of April.

Obama's plea for new gun legislation