Florida lawmakers refuse to consider assault weapons ban despite call for tougher gun control laws

Florida state lawmakers have rejected a bill that would ban assault rifles, less than a week after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a Florida high school.

The Florida House voted 36-71 against a motion to consider legislation to outlaw assault rifles and large capacity magazines, effectively killing the bill for the time-being, according to the Associated Press.

The vote came as members of Congress, state legislators, governors and student survivors of the Parkland shooting called for tougher gun control laws.

Armed with a legally purchased AR-15-style assault rifle, a gunman last Wednesday attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about 45 miles north of Miami.

Students from the high school had travelled to the State House in Tallahassee to watch the vote. They looked on from the gallery as their lawmakers voted against considering the bill, according to Local10 News.

Democratic State Representative, Carlos Guillermo Smith, who has sponsored the assault weapon ban in Florida for the past two years, said the vote was the first time in two years the legislature held a vote on the proposed legislation.

He said the House had a moment of prayer, which he decided to sit out, before lawmakers voted not to bring the bill to the floor.

“For two years I have sponsored the assault weapons ban in the Florida legislature, and this afternoon we were finally given our first vote on whether to discuss the bill, and Republicans refused to even debate it,” Mr Smith told The Independent. “They could’ve voted it down.

Source: Yahoo News