WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday moved a step closer to approving bipartisan legislation aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, as a small group of Republicans joined Democrats to break through their party’s blockade and bring what would be the first substantial gun safety measure in decades to the brink of passage.
In a critical test vote, fifteen Republicans including Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky joined Democrats to allow the Senate’s passage of the measure as soon as Thursday. With 65 votes to 34, the Senate passed the measure with more than 60 votes. This broke a long-running Republican filibuster. Only one Republican Senator was present.
The majority leader in New York was Senator Chuck Schumer. He said that he would bring the bill up to the floor to vote on its final passage at the end of each day. However, timings could be changed.
California Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that after the Senate passes the bill, the House would quickly move to approve it. White House officials claimed that President Biden would approve the measure and call it “The Biden Act”. “one of the most significant steps Congress has taken to reduce gun violence in decades.”
“This is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction,”Schumer. “It’s significant — it’s going to save lives.”
A small number of Democrats, along with Republicans, reached an agreement after intensive negotiations. However, it does not contain many of those sweeping gun control policies that activists and Democrats have been calling for. The negotiations unfolded after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings — one at a grocery store in Buffalo and another at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas — generated a nationwide outcry for action, and prodded senators in both parties to find at least some common ground after decades of stalemate.
This is the end result “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,”The background check would be more thorough for gun buyers who are under 21. It will extend the waiting period to three to ten days, and allow for law enforcement to review juvenile mental and physical records.
Federal grant funds of $750 million would be available to states to implement red flag laws. This allows authorities to confiscate temporarily guns in the event that they are declared a risk to others or themselves.
It would also include current and recent serious dating partners.
In addition, the measure would toughen criminal penalties for straw purchasing — buying and giving guns to people who are barred from owning a gun — and trafficking guns.
Democrats worked hard to retain Republicans in line, but they left out some of their key gun control measures, such as a House-passed bill that would ban the sale semiautomatic rifles for people younger than 21 years old, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and a federal flag law. The enhanced background checks for younger buyers will expire in ten years, as did the assault weapons ban. Future Congresses will have to negotiate about its extension.
However, the National Rifle Association strongly resisted the bill. They stated in a statement that the bill was “too restrictive”. “does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners.”
Millions of dollars are set aside, most notably in grants, to improve mental health in schools, communities and for funding the national suicide hotline. This legislation provides funds to improve school safety.
Republican proponents, facing substantial backlash from gun-rights groups and a majority of their colleagues, have been careful to emphasize their success in keeping the scope of the bill narrow, including circulating an endorsement from the National Sheriffs’ Association.
“Sheriffs see, up close, the daily carnage of gun violence carried out by criminals and individuals suffering from mental illness,”The group sent a note. “We appreciate the authors coming together on a bill that can actually save lives, which is written in such a way that allows the states to craft their own unique answers to the questions raised by gun violence.”
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