US Senate rejects gun control measures

The US Senate on Monday failed to muster the votes to pass any of several competing bills aimed at making it more difficult for potentially dangerous individuals to purchase firearms.

Popular revulsion over the deaths of 49 people in the June 12 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, prompted lawmakers in both parties to put forward proposals.

Republicans and Democrats submitted bills to restrict sales of guns to suspected extremists and to bolster the current system of background checks that applies to a substantial proportion of firearms purchases, EFE news agency reported.

But none of the measures garnered the 60 votes necessary to move forward.

Most Democrats rejected the Republican proposals as inadequate, while the majority of GOP senators found their rivals' ideas too restrictive.

The Democrats' main focus was on a measure to bar federally licensed gun dealers from selling weapons to any of the roughly 1 million people on Washington's terrorist watch list, a group that includes fewer than 5,000 US citizens or legal permanent residents.

Republicans, meanwhile, emphasised expanded funding for the established apparatus of background checks for prospective gun buyers.

--IANS

vr