US Senators have presented the framework of a bipartisan response to last month’s horrific shootings, a significant but limited step forward that includes modest gun restrictions and increased efforts to improve school safety and mental health initiatives.
The proposal falls far short of President Joe Biden’s and many Democrats’ demands for stronger measures. Despite this, the leader endorsed the agreement, and its implementation would mark a dramatic shift after years of gun tragedies that have resulted in nothing more than a deadlock in the US Congress.
“It doesn’t achieve everything I believe is needed,” Biden said in a statement, “but it marks critical moves in the right direction, and it would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”
Given the bipartisan support, “there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House of Representatives,” he added.
Following the news, 20 senators, including 10 Republicans, issued a statement supporting the plan. That could be critical because the measure’s largest roadblock is likely to be the 50-50 Senate, where at least 10 Republican votes are needed to reach the 60-vote threshold for ratification.
Background checks on gun buyers under the age of 21 would make their juvenile records public under the compromise. Many of the shooters in recent mass shootings have been young, such as the suspects who killed ten Black people in a Buffalo grocery store and 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school.
