WASHINGTON – A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday released a compromise bill to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, taking a substantial step to break a deadlock for years in Congress on how to address armed violence.
While the legislation does not comply with the major arms control measures demanded by Democrats, if passed, it would be the most important action in decades to revise the nation’s gun laws.
The 80-page bill would improve background checks, giving authorities up to 10 business days to review the mental and juvenile health records of gun buyers under the age of 21, and invest federal dollars to help states to implement the so-called red flag laws, which allow the authorities. to temporarily confiscate weapons from persons considered dangerous. The measure would also ensure, for the first time, that serious dating couples are included in a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from buying firearms.
Senators also agreed to provide millions of dollars to expand mental health resources to communities and schools, in addition to funds dedicated to increasing school safety. In addition, the legislation would toughen penalties for those who evade license requirements or make illegal “straw” purchases, buying and then selling weapons to people with a ban on buying handguns.
The Senate is expected to pass legislation Tuesday night, and lawmakers hope to pass it before a scheduled July 4 recess. With the framework publicly supported by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, as well as by President Biden and Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, the move seemed to have enough support to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance in the House. equal. But attendees warned that details would be crucial in determining the final vote.
Both Senate leaders quickly issued statements of public support for the legislation. Mr. McConnell called it “a common-sense package of popular measures that will help make these horrific incidents less likely while fully guaranteeing the rights of the Second Amendment of law-abiding citizens.”
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, vowed to go ahead with a quick test vote on the package. “This bipartisan arms security legislation is progress and will save lives,” he said. “While it’s not all we want, this legislation is urgently needed.”
The negotiation attack has been fueled by two mass shootings in the past two months: a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, and a racist attack that killed 10 blacks in a Buffalo supermarket. Human devastation has brought the issue of armed violence back to the forefront on Capitol Hill, where years of efforts to enact arms restrictions in the wake of these attacks have fallen short amid Republican opposition.
Since announcing their agreement on a bipartisan scheme less than two weeks ago, the main negotiators — Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats, and John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of Carolina. from the North, both Republicans — have passed. hours hammering the details and working to keep their fragile coalition together.
“Obviously these have been difficult negotiations, but they have been incredibly productive and meaningful,” Mr. Murphy Tuesday before the legislation is published. “And, you know, I’m proud of where we’re coming from.”
Talks repeatedly faltered on the brink of failure last week, but as lawmakers, in evening meetings and calls, struggled to translate their outline into a legislative text. The group spent the three-day weekend haggling over the details of the measure.
“It’s been very slow for everyone, but I think we’re ready,” Mr. Cornyn, addressing a Republican leadership meeting in the evening.
Two provisions have been particularly frustrating in the last days of talks: whether to extend funding for red-flag laws to states that do not have such laws, and how exactly to define a boyfriend or intimate partner, as lawmakers tried to shut down what he has had. it is known as the “groove of the groom”. Current law only prohibits the purchase of a firearm by domestic abusers who have married or lived with the victim, or have had a child with her.
Negotiators agreed to allow dating partners convicted of a misdemeanor to regain the right to purchase a weapon after five years, as long as they were first-time criminals and were not found guilty of any other crime or violent crime, he said. Sr. Cornyn in the Senate. .
And lawmakers agreed to allow states access to federal funds to implement red-flag laws or establish what Mr. Cornyn described them as “crisis intervention programs.”
“Under this bill, all states will be able to use significant new federal dollars to expand their programs to try to prevent dangerous people, people contemplating mass killings or suicides, from having access to weapons that allow them perpetrate this crime, “said Mr. Murphy in a Senate speech.
The road to President Biden’s desk is still rocky. Republicans inside and outside the Capitol have expressed dismay at the extent of the measure, and Texas Republicans have booed Mr. Cornyn and have decided to formally “reprimand” him and eight other Republicans for their role in the negotiations. And some Democrats, especially in the House, where they have advanced much more ambitious gun reform legislation, have expressed concern over the notion of “hardening” schools or stigmatizing mental health struggles.
Arms security activists praised the deal, though it failed to achieve many of its goals.
“This bipartisan legislation meets the most important test: it will save lives,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. “We are now one step closer to breaking the 26-year deadlock that has blocked Congressional action to protect Americans from armed violence.”