WASHINGTON – A bipartisan bill to end gun violence faced a major procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday, less than a month after a sensational shooting at an elementary school in Walton, Texas pushed Congress to act.
The vote to advance the bill was 64-34 against. Fourteen Republicans have joined Democrats in supporting the measure, and senators are now awaiting its final adoption by the end of this week.
The Bill, called the Bipartisan Safe Communities Act, includes moderate restrictions on obtaining firearms and on mental health and school assistance. This was agreed by a key group of four senators after weeks of tense negotiations. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Kyrsten Cinema (D-Ariz.) And Tom Tilly (RN.C.).
“Today we have enacted bipartisan and common sense legislation to protect American children, protect our schools and reduce the threat of violence in our country,” the senators said in a statement released Tuesday. “Our law will save lives and will not violate the rights of anyone law -abiding American.”
The bill includes funding to improve mental health, improve screening for people under 21, encourage states to pass Red Flag laws and school safety measures.
It will close the “gap between lovers”, the end of last -minute negotiations, with a romantic partner convicted of domestic violence with a gun ban. And this includes the first comprehensive federal criminal law prohibiting the arms trade and the purchase of straw.
However, this does not include the broader restrictions demanded by gun control advocates, such as a ban on assault weapons, increasing the age of 21 for the purchase of semi-automatic rifles, rules on home safe storage or control of online gun sales and exhibits as needed. .
“These two -party gun safety laws are progress and will save lives. Even if that’s not all we want, That law is urgently needed, ”Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said Tuesday, promising to take it to a quick final vote.
In an extraordinary step, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He also supported the deal in a statement released by his office.
For years, the far left has falsely claimed that Congress can only address the heinous issue of mass murder that violates the constitutional rights of legitimate Americans. “This bill proves it’s a lie,” McConnell said.
However, the bill is likely to encounter substantial opposition from the right. The National Rifle Association announced it would go against the law once it is published Tuesday night. The group said the agreement “could be abused to limit the legal purchase of firearms, to violate the rights of law -abiding Americans, and to use federal dollars to fund firearms control measures taken. of state and local politicians “.
Cornyn, a top GOP negotiator, was in Houston for a speech at the Texas GOP convention over the weekend. He defended the bill, and said it did not violate the rights of legitimate gun owners.
However, what could be a sign that gun policy has changed since recent mass shootings, including what happened to Walde, more than a dozen Republican senators supported the bill on Tuesday.
Murphy, a leading Democratic negotiator and voice gun control advocate in Newtown, pointed out after the mass shooting in Connecticut that the deal was the product of what is possible in today’s tightly split Senate.
“This bill doesn’t contain everything I want, but it will save many lives and eventually break the 30-year political blockade.” I hope to gain bipartisan support for today’s historic piece of legislation. weeks from my fellow members of the Senate, “he said in a statement.
Source: Huffpost
