Some American lawmakers to push for tougher gun laws over Orlando
A number of US lawmakers have suggested a move towards tougher gun control laws in America in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Democratic Senator Robert Casey says he will announce a bill on Monday that would ban anyone convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from owning a firearm.
Under current law, those with felony convictions are prohibited from buying or possessing a gun, but those convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes are not.
The powerful US gun lobby, however, has over the past years vehemently opposed gun sales restrictions as a threat to Americans' constitutional rights.
Meanwhile, other Democrats have also called for Congress to act over Orlando’s attack.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the "epidemic" of gun violence would continue if Congress does not act and also said lawmakers shared responsibility.
"Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable deafening silence," he said in a statement. "This doesn't have to happen but this epidemic will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing – again."
Also, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois said the killings would prompt debate but not action. "The bottom line is that we allow dangerous people to buy guns in America and that has got to change."
At least 50 people were killed and 53 others injured when a young gunman, identified by US media as a Daesh sympathizer named Omar Mateen, attacked a gay nightclub and barricaded himself in the complex, but was later killed by specially trained SWAT units.
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