WASHINGTON - The US Senate on Thursday voted to open debate on gun control measures advocated by President Barack Obama and mostly Democratic lawmakers, clearing the first hurdle for relevant legislation.

In a 68-31 vote, the upper chamber of the US Congress approved a procedural motion that will allow debate on the floor over the most ambitious gun control legislation in more than a decade. The move will set off weeks of debate in the Senate.

The Obama administration "strongly supports" the Senate package of gun control measures, "which takes critical steps to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in the nation," according to a statement released by the White House on Thursday.

The vote came nearly four months after 20 schoolchildren and six educators were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, which occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. The massacre shocked the nation and renewed the gun control debate.