Enlarge image
Crosses outside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (Texas) commemorate the victims of the massacre: The US Democrats want stricter gun laws
Photo:
ALLISON DINNER / AFP
Republicans in the US Senate have blocked a bill to better fight hate crimes.
The project passed the House of Representatives with a majority of Democrats last week after the racially motivated attack that left ten dead in a supermarket in the city of Buffalo.
The draft failed on Thursday in the Senate, the second chamber of the US Congress, due to the so-called filibuster.
Accordingly, for many legislative projects, 60 of the 100 votes in the Senate are necessary for a vote on a legislative proposal to take place at all.
A success of the Democrats was not expected.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote that the bill would address “a serious cause of gun violence”: domestic terrorism and racism.
Domestic terrorism in the United States is generally understood to mean terrorist crimes committed by Americans inside the country.
Among other things, the draft stipulates that authorities such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice or the FBI must exchange information better.
In addition, an inter-agency working group is to be set up to deal with the infiltration of the police by neo-Nazis.
Democrats for stricter gun laws
The Republicans had already rejected the draft in the past, arguing that the issue of left-wing extremism was neglected.
The Democrats had hoped that after the massacre in a school in the US state of Texas, they could also find a compromise with the Republicans on stricter gun laws and be able to use the hate crimes law to do so.
Schumer has now announced that he wants to work on a compromise draft with the Republicans.
A gunman killed 10 people and injured three others in Buffalo two weeks ago.
The majority of the victims were black.
According to investigators, the shooter published a racist manifesto before the crime.
Just over a week later, a gunman opened fire in a primary school in the small town of Uvalde, killing 19 school children and two adults.
After the two attacks, the debate about gun violence flared up again in the United States.
ngo/dpa