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GOP Senators Block Debate on Domestic Terrorism Measure

In a disagreement over how best to control gun violence, Republican Senators blocked Democratic legislators' attempts to start a debate on domestic terrorism.

Republican Senators Block Domestic Terrorism Move
Republican Senators Block Domestic Terrorism Move Source: Web

On Thursday, the United States GOP senators blocked Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to start a debate on the move to address domestic terrorism as both parties have differences over how best to control gun violence. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the move following a mass Buffalo supermarket shooting earlier this month, in which a white teenage, suspected shooter specifically targeted and killed ten Black people.

Democratic efforts to begin debate on the domestic terrorism move – come two days after a teenage shooter killed nineteen children and two teachers at a Texan elementary school – failed on a forty-seven/forty-seven vote, far short of the required sixty to overcome a GOP filibusterer. Furthermore, Democratic lawmakers failed for several years to overcome GOP opposition to stricter controls on gun sales and tighter background checks on gun buyers and are trying one more time to compromise with GOP leaders on gun control legislation in the aftereffect of the Texas bloodshed carried out by an eighteen-year-old high school dropout.

There was no signal that GOP senators were eager to stop their opposition, with several saying that law-abiding residents’ gun-purchasing rights would be imposed if background checks were introduced. According to the GOP leaders, the demotic terrorism bill does not place enough stress on addressing far-left groups’ offenses.

The Legislation to Set Up New Federal Offices

The bill would set up new offices at the U.S. Homeland Security & Justice departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to focus on domestic terrorism. According to Democrats, the offices would aid the federal government in preventing domestic terrorism. However, several GOP lawmakers argued that the government could already track such activity, so new legislation is unnecessary.

GOP Senators Block Debate on Domestic Terrorism Measure

Furthermore, Politico reported that Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the problem with the country is the number of people who define anyone who disagrees with them as an extremist or a terrorist. Americans are worried that the term ‘extremist’ has become too liberally applied to people and that these entities will be misused. That’s the concern that people have.

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