US Senate takes first steps towards new gun law hailed as ‘most important in decades’ | US News
The US Senate voted to take the first steps towards new gun legislation.
Lawmakers voted to expedite passage of a bipartisan package of measures to tighten federal gun laws.
They agreed to a procedural measure that would allow the chamber to consider and vote on a measure this week. If that passes, it would be the country’s first major gun legislation in decades.
Framework for a gun safety bill is a response to last month mass shooting in UvaldeTexas and Buffalo, New York.
The act includes provisions that would help states keep guns out of the hands of people deemed a danger to themselves or others and close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by blocking the sale of guns to those deemed dangerous. convicted of abusing an unmarried partner.
However, the bill would stop raising the age limit from 18 to 21 for the purchase of automatic assault weapons.
The gunmen in both Texas and New York were 18-year-olds using rifles they bought themselves.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he expected the bill to pass this week, while Senator Chris Murphy, the top Democrat, was in talks to forge a legislative agreement. legislation with Republicans, calling it “the most important piece of gun violence legislation Congress will ever have. It’s been 30 years.”
Mr. Murphy added: “This is a breakthrough. And more importantly, it is a bipartisan breakthrough.”
With 100 Senate seats split equally between two parties, the legislation would need support from at least 10 .
Republicans to overcome a procedural hurdle.
Analysis: Is America too deeply divided to deal with its gun problem?
Fourteen Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to move forward to vote on the legislation.
The National Rifle Association said on Twitter that it opposed the legislation because it could be abused to restrict legal gun purchases.
Statements by political power groups could influence how many Republicans vote on the measure.
A total of 19 students and their two teachers were shot dead in a violent murder by high school student Salvador Ramos at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last month.
Just days earlier, a gunman had live-streamed a “racially motivated” mass shooting that left 10 people dead at a Buffalo supermarket.
The incident sparked calls for a change to gun laws that in the ten years since the deadliest school shooting in America – at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where 26 people were killed – have barely changed. change.
