US senators have announced agreement on a bipartisan gun violence bill, marking a small but notable advance on gun control in the wake of recent mass shootings.
Nine days after Senate negotiators agreed to a framework proposal, and 29 years after Congress last enacted major gun restrictions, Senators Chris Murphy, a Democrat, and John Cornyn, a Republican, told reporters on Tuesday that final agreement had been reached on the details of the proposal. .
The legislation would toughen background checks for younger firearms buyers, require more sellers to conduct background checks, and tighten penalties on gun dealers. It would also disburse money to states and communities aimed at improving school safety and mental health initiatives.
The bill also contains provisions to curb domestic violence, including prohibiting romantic partners convicted of domestic violence and who are not married to their victim from obtaining firearms. And it would provide money to the 19 states and the District of Columbia that have “red flag” laws that make it easier to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed dangerous, and to other states that have violence prevention programs.
Lawmakers released the 80-page bill Tuesday night. The move is estimated to cost around $15 billion, which Murphy said would be paid for in full.
The legislation lacks much more powerful proposals that Joe Biden supports and that Democrats have pushed for years without success, such as banning assault weapons or raising the minimum age to buy them, banning high-capacity magazines and requiring background checks. for virtually all weapons. Sales. Those measures were derailed by Republican opponents in an evenly split Senate.
But the bill, if enacted, will still represent a modest but telling change on an issue that has defied compromise since Bill Clinton was president. Congress banned assault firearms in 1993 in a ban that expired after a decade, lawmakers’ latest sweeping legislation addressing gun violence.
Senators have seized the momentum following the devastating killings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Murphy said that after Buffalo and Uvalde: “I saw a level of fear on the faces of the parents and children I spoke with that I had never seen before.” He said his colleagues also found anxiety and fear among voters “not only for the safety of their children, but also for the government’s ability to rise to this moment and do something, and do something meaningful.”
This bill, Murphy said, was a partisan breakthrough that “would save thousands of lives.” Before entering the Senate, his House district included Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six staff members perished in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“Some think it goes too far, others think it doesn’t go far enough. And I get it. It’s the nature of engagement,” Cornyn said.
But he added: “I think the very people who are telling us to do something send us a clear message, to do what we can to keep our children and communities safe. I am confident that this legislation moves us in a positive direction.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said his chamber would begin debating the measure immediately and move to final approval “as quickly as possible.”
And in a positive sign about its fate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voiced his support, calling it “a common-sense package of grassroots steps that will help make these horrific incidents less likely while fully defending themselves.” the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
The National Rifle Association, which has spent decades derailing gun control legislation, said it opposes the move. “He falls short on every level. It does little to really address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary charges on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners,” the gun lobby group said.
The measure will need at least 10 Republican votes to reach the 60-vote threshold that major bills typically need in the 50-50 Senate. Ten Republican senators joined 10 Democrats in backing the framework, with Cornyn telling reporters “I think there will be at least” 10 Republican votes for the measure.
What is uncertain is whether the agreement and its passage would mark the beginning of slow but gradual action by Congress to curb gun violence, or the high point of the issue. Even Buffalo and Uvalde, a mind-numbing parade of mass murder, at sites that include elementary and high schools, places of worship, military installations, bars and the Las Vegas Strip, have only produced a deadlock in Washington.
“Thirty years, murder after murder, suicide after suicide, mass shooting after mass shooting, Congress did nothing,” Murphy said. “This week we have an opportunity to break this 30-year period of silence with a bill that changes our laws in a way that will save thousands of lives.”
Reference-www.theguardian.com