WASHINGTON – Senate negotiators announced on Sunday that they had agreed on a bipartisan outline for a small set of arms security measures with enough support to pass through the equitably divided chamber, a significant step in ending a dead end. Congress on the issue.
The plan, backed by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, would include funding for mental health resources, increasing school safety and subsidies for states to implement so-called red-flag laws that allow authorities to confiscate weapons from people considered dangerous. It would also expand the country’s background check system to include the youth records of any potential arms buyer under the age of 21.
Above all, it includes a provision to address what is known as the “groove of the groom,” which would prohibit dating partners, not just spouses, from having weapons if they had been convicted of domestic violence. The framework says convicted domestic violence abusers and people subject to domestic violence removal orders would be included in the criminal background check.
The scheme, which has not yet materialized, is a long way from the expanding reforms that President Biden, gun control activists, and most congressional Democrats have long advocated, excluding a ban on assault weapons. And it’s not as broad as a package of gun measures passed almost along party lines in the House last week, which would ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons to people under the age of 21, would ban the sale of magazines. great capacity and implement. a federal red flag law.
But it has made remarkable, albeit limited, progress given the party’s deep divisions over how to deal with armed violence and repeated failed efforts to pass arms reform at the Capitol, where Republicans have thwarted action for years.
The support of 10 Republicans in the scheme announced on Sunday suggested that it could climb an obstacle that no other proposal currently under discussion has been able to achieve: get the 60 votes needed to break with Republican obstructionism and survive to see a top or … negative vote in the Senate. However, attendees warned that until the legislation was finalized, it was not certain that each of the components could maintain that level of support.
Republicans refused in March to include a provision to address the so-called boyfriend gap as part of a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which forced Democrats to abandon it to pass legislation.
The gun deal was announced on the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where a gunman killed 49 people in what was then the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. United.
“Today, we announce a bipartisan, common-sense proposal to protect American children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country,” the 20 senators said in a joint statement. “Families are afraid and it is our duty to come together and do something to help them restore their sense of security in their communities.”
Negotiators now need to translate the broad principles of the framework into a legislative text, a much more complex process, and ensure sufficient support in both chambers for legislation to become law.
New York Sen. ‘epidemic of armed violence that has affected our country.’
“After a relentless wave of gun-related suicides and homicides, including mass shootings, the Senate is ready to act on common sense reforms to protect Americans where they live, where they buy and where they learn,” he said. say Mr. Schumer in a statement. “We need to move quickly to move this legislation forward because if a life can be saved, it’s worth the effort.”
Still, gun safety activists said they viewed the measures as significant progress that they hoped would mark a significant shift in the way Republicans approach gun safety legislation.
“The fact that such a large group is coming together to achieve this shows that we are at a historic moment,” said T. Christian Heyne, vice president of policy for Brady United Against Gun Violence. “It seems like a critical initial step for what I hope will be a new era in the prevention of armed violence.”
Mr. Heyne said closing the dating couple’s gap, in particular, has long been one of her organization’s top priorities. “All of these things individually are significant,” Mr. Heyne. “When you look at them together, it feels pretty significant.”
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said that if the announced framework was enacted as law, “it will be the most important piece of gun safety legislation to pass in Congress in 26 long and deadly years.”
Some House Democrats said they were cautiously optimistic about measures that could attract bipartisan support for the Senate.
“I’m disappointed to hear a focus on increasing criminalization and juvenile criminalization instead of really focusing on guns,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat in the State of the United States. Union “of CNN. “But the provision of background checks is encouraging. So I think we really need to look at the text.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, said the legislation did not comply with the general actions needed to prevent mass shootings. But he said he would work with the modest agreement being forged in the Senate. “It’s moving in the right direction,” he told CNN. “We’re glad the Senate has finally woken up on this.”
The rare moment of bipartisan agreement on the insoluble issue of gun control came after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, and a racist attack in Buffalo, where a gunman killed 10 blacks in a supermarket. he pushed the issue of armed violence to the forefront in Washington, where years of efforts to enact gun restrictions in the wake of mass shootings have failed amid Republican opposition.
The talks were led by Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, a longtime Democrat from Connecticut and a proponent of gun reform, and John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and a trusted ally of the GOP leadership. For days, about a dozen senators, including veterans of failed attempts to reach similar agreements, met in Zoom, by phone, and in the basement offices on Capitol Hill to reach an agreement before the Senate leaves. a scheduled retreat on July 4th.
Luke Broadwater contributed to the report.