On Wednesday night, the US House of Representatives voted 222/203 to pass the ‘Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022’ to address the increasing threat of white supremacy and domestic extremism after the vile racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The House-passed legislation will now proceed to the United States Senate, where its fate is uncertain.
In response to the racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 222/203 late Wednesday to prevent domestic terrorism. The vote was an answer to the increasing pressure US Congress faces to address white supremacist riots. pic.twitter.com/pqGRP0Hk7B
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The nearly party-line vote comes in consequence of a terrible mass shooting on Saturday, May 14, by a white 18-year-old shooter, identified as Payton S. Gendron from Conklin, New York, who allegedly opened fire at a Tops Friendly Markets store and killed ten people and wounded three others.
According to a statement from her Office, Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has declared 2.8M dollars in funding for the sufferers and their families.
Additionally, Chuck Schumer, the US Senate Majority Leader, told the media yesterday that he plans to take procedural actions to force a vote on the legislation in the coming week, something that would demand sixty votes.
Authorities Identified Thirteen Victims
The US policymakers are pressurized to proceed in response to the Buffalo massacre, but the highly polarized, biased environment makes it improbable that any major policy changes would get full Congressional approval. According to the media reports, though Democrats control both chambers of Congress, their Senate majority isn’t adequate enough for them to enact most bills on a party-line vote. And the majority of GOPs remain consistently opposed to any sort of US gun control legislation.
Late on Sunday, according to Buffalo law enforcement, the identified thirteen victims were of ages 20-86-years. Moreover, Buffalo Police said that eleven of the victims were Black, and two were White. Authorities identified all victims as Roberta A. Drury, 32, of Buffalo; Margus D. Morrison, 52, of Buffalo; Andre Mackniel, 53, of Auburn, New York; Geraldine Talley, 62, of Buffalo; Celestine Chaney, 65, of Buffalo; Aaron Salter, 55, of Lockport, New York; Heyward Patterson, 67, of Buffalo; Katherine Massey, 72, of Buffalo; Ruth Whitfield, 86, of Buffalo, and Pearl Young, 77, from Buffalo.
Source: Web
Moreover, Zaire Goodman, 20, of Buffalo, and Jennifer Warrington, 50, of Tonawanda, New York, were treated and released from the hospital. However, Christopher Braden, 55, from Lackawanna, New York, had non-life-threatening wounds.
This legislation establishes new requirements to expand the accessibility of information on homegrown terrorism and the relationship between racial hate crimes and domestic terrorism. Moreover, it authorizes homegrown terrorism components within the U.S. Homeland Security Department, the Justice Department, and the FBI to monitor, scrutinize, probe, and arraign domestic terrorism.
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