In the months before Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, the state’s legislature blocked a bill banning the sale of the type of assault rifle allegedly used in the attack.
Prior to that, at the federal level, nearly all of Pennsylvania’s Republican congressional delegation voted against a bill to reinstate a nationwide assault weapons ban, and the U.S. Senate GOP blocked the legislation.
In January, a Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House committee passed a bill banning the sale of assault weapons — against the unanimous opposition of Republicans on the panel. That legislation, however, was then tabled in the Pennsylvania assembly, facing stiff opposition from the state’s Republican lawmakers and the National Rifle Association.
