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A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators will announce it on Sunday reached an interim agreement on legislation that would combine new modest arms restrictions with significant new investments in mental health and school safety, an agreement that could put Congress on track to enact the most significant national response in decades to the acts of mass armed violence.
The framework agreement was confirmed on Sunday by three people involved in the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their status ahead of a formal announcement, which is expected at noon.
While they are substantially weaker than the ban on assault weapons, the restrictions on high-capacity ammunition and the broader background checks that support most Democrats, the gun provisions set out in the framework could represent, if enacted, the new major federal firearms restrictions enacted by the media. -Dec 1990s.
Under the interim agreement, a federal grant program would encourage states to establish “red flag” laws that allow authorities to keep guns away from people a judge considers to pose a potential threat to themselves or for others, while checking the federal criminal record for gun buyers. under-21s would include a mandatory search of juvenile justice records for the first time.
It does not include a provision backed by President Biden, Congress Democrats and a handful of Republicans that would raise the minimum age for the purchase of at least some rifles from 18 to 21 years old. Guns are already subject to a federal age of 21 or older. limit.
Other provisions could channel billions of new federal dollars into mental health and school safety programs, funding new campus infrastructure and armed officers. Several senators said last week that they hoped that a cornerstone of the deal would be legislation sponsored by Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) And Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) To establish a national network of “community clinics. behavioral health “.
Sunday’s announcement is the result of a bipartisan accidental effort launched in the days following the May 24 murder of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. days after another shocking mass shooting inside a Buffalo supermarket. .
It also comes a day after thousands attended nationwide gun control rallies organized by the student-led March for Our Lives group, including an event in Washington at the National Mall.
Prior to Sunday’s announcement, senators publicly outlined a negotiating position in general terms.
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Who has led Democrat efforts on gun legislation since the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, said during a rally on gun violence Friday that it was decided to break the stasis of Congress on gun legislation. , but not at any cost: “I’m not interested in doing anything unless it’s something that saves lives, unless something has an impact and meaning.”
Meanwhile, John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Who has an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association, said last week that he is interested in forging a compromise, but only if it preserves the rights of gun owners according to the Second Amendment.
“It’s not about creating new restrictions on law-abiding citizens,” he said. “It’s about making sure the system we have in place works as planned.”
The key hurdles remain: only a handful of the 50 Republican senators were involved in the bargaining group, and under the Senate filibuster rule, at least 10 would have to join the 50 members of the Democratic caucus to advance any legislation. Red flag laws, in particular, have raised the tricks of many Conservative Republicans, though negotiators said last week that they believed there would be enough GOP support to pass any deal.
People involved in the talks said it was not yet clear how many senators would finally sign the statement Sunday morning. One said there were still hopes of having at least 10 Republicans on board, indicating a clear path to the pass.
Also, the framework that will be announced on Sunday is equivalent to a statement of principles, not a fully written bill. Although people involved in the process said last week that important pieces of legislation have already been written, new points of friction often arise in Congress as the drafting process ends.
“The details will be critical to Republicans, especially the gun-related provisions,” said a GOP aide familiar with the talks. “One or more of these principles could be discarded if the text is not agreed upon.”
Biden, who delivered a speech at the White House earlier this month calling for new firearms restrictions, expressed support for the demonstrations and “common sense gun safety legislation” on Saturday in a Twitter post: “I join them in repeating my call to Congress: do something.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Noted Friday that the Democratic-controlled House is dying to enact any bill the Senate manages to pass. “If it saves lives and can make a difference, and they have bipartisan support for it, then we will appreciate it, even though it will not be all we want,” he told a news conference.
The House has already passed four gun-related bills that go far beyond the Senate’s interim agreement. Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that extended federal background checks to all commercial transactions, including those conducted at gun shows and over the Internet, as well as a measure that extended the period that the FBI has to complete background checks on gun buyers.
Also last week, in response to recent shootings, the House passed bills banning the sale of many semi-automatic rifles to under-21s, banning high-capacity magazines and promoting red-flag laws in both state courts. as federal.
None of these bills have the Republican support needed to pass the Senate.
The last major federal gun control laws were passed in the mid-1990s: the “Brady Bill” of 1993, which created the national system of instant background checks, and the arms ban. 1994 assault, which banned some military-style semi-automatic rifles and pistols. This last bill expired 10 years later and has not been renewed.
In recent decades, Washington has acted primarily to expand gun rights. In 2005, for example, Congress immunized the firearms industry against product liability claims, and in 2008, the Supreme Court enshrined a person’s right to bear arms in the historic case. DC v. Heller. The impetus in 2013 following the shooting of Sandy Hook Elementary School to expand background checks to cover more arms transactions, including arms sales and the Internet, left six Senate votes short.
The Senate returns to the session on Monday, and while Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) did not issue an ultimatum last week on time, he urged negotiators to act quickly.
In an interview Thursday, Murphy said he believed the chamber had two weeks left to act, before lawmakers left Washington for a two-week Independence Day break.
But meeting even that timetable would require a framework for establishing a deal quickly, Murphy said, citing the likelihood that arms rights supporters in the Senate would try to erect procedural obstacles to any potential legislation.
“We can’t come to an agreement the last week we’re here,” he said. “There are people in the Senate who will certainly use all available rules to keep it going and slow it down.”