The US passes federal gun control legislation for the first time in three decades

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  • The bill, more moderate than Biden and activists wanted, wins bipartisan support

  • The milestone comes hours after the Supreme Court enshrined the right to carry weapons in public

Almost 30 years of legislative inaction in the United States Congress to address the firearms control they had settled in the country despair and, also, cynicism. Nothing was achieved, for example, after the 2012 Newtown school massacre pitted the country against its worst demons, or after survivors of the 2018 Parkland high school shooting launched a “revolution” against guns in 2018. Nor before the stairway to hell to which more and more deaths from bullets have been added, either in suicides or in acts of violence. But even passivity in the face of horror for political interests has shown to have a limit and the US, for first time in three decadesget ahead with Democratic and Republican support legislation that strengthen gun control.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the product of intense negotiations that the two parties initiated in response to two recent tragedies: the racist killing of 10 black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and the murder of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Remains far from the ambitious goals proposed by President Joe Biden and sought by activists, but achieves progress how to extend the extension and terms of background checks on buyers under 21which will now include the juvenile and mental health history.

The progress of the standard, above all, has shown that the impasse can be broken and that the National Rifle Associationwhich opposed its approval, is not as all-powerful with its money and organizational capacity and voter mobilization as it has been shown in recent decades.

electoral interests

With 15 Republicans joining the 50 Democrats to move it forward, the bill was given the green light in the Senate on Thursday night, just hours after the Supreme Court issued a ruling that goes in the opposite direction and that has enshrined the right of Americans to bear arms in public . This Friday it was finally approved in the Upper House. And from there it is delivered for final signature to Bidenwhich already celebrated it on Thursday as a law that “will help protect Americans & rdquor ;.

The details of the Republican votes are revealing. Only two of the conservative senators who supported her face re-election in the November legislative elections, another four withdraw and the rest do not have their appointment with the polls until 2026. And among those who have supported her is Mitch McConnell, the influential and powerful conservative leader in the Senate, who did not hide the electoral calculations that came into play in his decision, especially given the proximity of those legislative ones in which the Democrats can lose control of the Chambers. “It will be viewed favorably by voters in the suburbs we need to win back Hoping to be the majority again & rdquor ;, McConnell said openly, who had in his possession a survey that told him that between 79 and 86% of his voters supported some measures of the proposal. McConnell also pointed out that the new law maintains the constitutional protections of the second amendment, untouchable by many conservative voters.

Measures

endowed with $15 billionthe law includes 750 million for finance violence prevention programs and for the 19 states and the District of Columbia that have “red flag” laws, that facilitate temporarily confiscate weapons from fire to people who represent a danger to themselves or the community. It also directs money to states and communities to fund mental health services and to improve the school safety. It also expands the number of dealers who will have to do background checks before selling guns and will raise the fines for traffickers.

Another of his achievements is close what was known as “the legal vacuum of the groom & rdquor;. Until now, the federal law prohibited a person convicted of gender-based violence from obtaining a weapon, but it only included those who were married, cohabited with their partner or had children in common. The new norm extends the veto to those who have a “serious relationship & rdquor ;, without requiring marriage, cohabitation or offspring.

In the inkwell There are goals left by Biden and the activists that are a red line for conservatives: raise the minimum age to buy assault weapons ages 18 to 21restore the I veto those assault weapons that was in force between 1994 and 2004 or outlaw high-capacity chargers.

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