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The Senate passed legislation aimed at curbing acts of mass gun violence beyond a key procedural hurdle, voting to close the debate and move toward a final vote on a package that combines modest gun restrictions with $ 15 billion in funding for mental health and school safety.
The 65-34 vote represented an unlikely breakthrough in the emotional and polarizing issue of U.S. gun laws, which have not changed much in more than 25 years, although the nation has been repeatedly marked by mass shootings whose names have been recorded in history. from Columbine and Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and Parkland.
But the May 24 assassination of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., Prompted renewed action, forcing a small group of senators to negotiate a narrow, bipartisan package focused on maintaining the weapons away from dangerous potential killers and at the same time increase the volume. the nation’s mental health care capacity with billions of dollars in new funding.
The resulting Bipartisan Safer Communities Act garnered the support of 50 members of the Democratic caucus and 15 Republicans on Thursday, including minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Who has opposed previous attempts to tighten gun laws after the mass shootings.
Senate votes to move forward on bipartisan arms deal, breaking 30-year blockade
“That’s the sweet spot … to make America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country a little less free,” McConnell said Thursday. “This is a common sense package. Its provisions are very, very popular. It contains zero, zero new restrictions, zero new waiting periods, zero mandates and zero bans of any kind for law-abiding gun owners. “.
McConnell’s support came despite opposition from prominent gun advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, which this week said the bill “recently to really address violent crime as it opens the door to unnecessary charges for the exercise of the freedom of the Second Amendment by law “. owners of constant weapons “.
But other right-wing players supported the bill, which was negotiated primarily by Senators John Cornyn (R-Tex.) And Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), As well as Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). ) and Thom Tillis (RN.C.). The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board passed legislation Thursday, as did the National Sheriffs ’Association, which has close ties to GOP leaders.
Non-partisan groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, and the American Psychological Association also endorsed the bill.
Meanwhile, Democrats and gun control advocates hailed the bill as a breakthrough, in terms of politics if not politics, in breaking decades of deadlock in Congress over firearms laws.
“We’re about to save a lot of lives,” Murphy said. “We’ve been building a movement to end armed violence for 10 years, and we said someday we’d be strong enough to beat the gun lobby, and here we are.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) said Thursday that the bill “is not a cure for all the ways in which armed violence affects our nation, but it is a step in the right direction.” long awaited in the right direction “.
“The U.S. Senate was faced with an option: we could surrender to the obstacle … or we could choose to try to forge a bipartisan path to pass a real bill, no matter how difficult it may seem,” he said. to say. “We chose to try to do something.”
The coalition behind the gun bill reveals a strong Republican split in the Senate
The exact timing of the final vote remained in doubt Thursday afternoon. Under Senate rules, a final vote is expected to take place no later than Friday evening, but that deadline could be accelerated if all 100 senators agree.
The 15 Republicans who supported the bill were Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (NC), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine). , Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey O. Graham (SC), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) And Todd C. Young (Ind.) , as well as McConnell, Cornyn and Tillis.
Other Senate Republicans expressed a number of suspicions about the bill, most arguing that the bill was not enough to protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.
Some Conservative senators tabled amendments to the bill, such as an alternative from Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) And Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) That would fund school security officers and mental health programs. , leaving the current laws on weapons. intact. They or others could agree to speed up the final passage of the bill in exchange for voting on their amendments.
“We will not leave until we pass this bill,” Schumer said Thursday, pledging to work to pass the vote as soon as possible.
Should the Senate pass the bill, it would move to the House, where it is expected to pass it with the support of almost every Democrat and a handful of Republicans. “While more is needed, this package must be quickly turned into law to help protect our children,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Said Tuesday.
President Biden, who called for much more comprehensive arms control measures in a televised speech this month, said he intends to sign the bill. “Our children in schools and our communities will be safer thanks to this legislation,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “I ask Congress to finish the job and bring this bill to my desk.”
But Thursday’s Senate vote was the real breakthrough: breaking a de facto obstruction of gun control legislation that had been in place since the mid-1990s, when bipartisan majorities passed the Brady Bill. which established the national background check system, a 10-year ban. on assault weapons and restrictions on the sale of weapons to domestic violence offenders.
However, none of the measures included in this bill go that far. They are best described as modest expansions and adjustments to existing laws, such as closing the “boyfriend’s loophole,” a loophole in a 1996 law designed to keep guns away from domestic violence offenders.
Current law, however, prohibits the sale of weapons only to domestic violence offenders who committed their crimes against a spouse or partner with whom they had lived or had a child. The Senate bill includes those who committed minor crimes against those in “current or recent dating relationship” for the first time.
Another key provision creates “enhanced” background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21, who would be subject to a first-time criminal and mental health background search of minors. Authorities would have up to 10 business days to review these records in accordance with the Senate bill, although that provision will expire in 10 years, after which juvenile records will be routinely included in the federal instant background check database.
The bill also includes an additional $ 750 million in an existing Department of Justice grant program and allows it, for the first time, to fund state crisis intervention programs, including “red flag” laws that allow authorities keep weapons temporarily away from people who pose a danger to themselves or their communities. Other provisions establish new federal arms trafficking offenses and clarify which gun dealers must apply for a federal firearms license and therefore conduct background checks on their customers.
Elements of the mental health-focused bill would allow states to create “community behavioral health centers,” increase school intervention programs, and allow wider access to telehealth services for those in need. in a mental health crisis, among other programs. The $ 15 billion price is offset by the delay in a Trump administration regulation on Medicare drug costs.
The Senate vote came just hours after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, extended the rights of Americans to carry firearms publicly under the Constitution, repealing a New York law that required to those applying for a license to carry a gun to prove a legitimate right. reason to do so.
The court’s opinion, written by Judge Clarence Thomas, holds “that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect a person’s right to carry a gun to defend themselves away from home.” But a concurrent opinion written by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and joined by Court President John G. Roberts Jr. stressed that the Constitution continues to allow for a “variety” of gun regulations.