First gun control bill passed by the US Senate in decades

The US Senate has passed the most important arms control bill in 30 years.

Fifteen Republicans joined Democrats in Parliament, and the House passed the bill with 65 to 33 votes. This comes after last month’s shootings at a store in Buffalo, New York and an elementary school in Yuvalde, Texas.

In order for President Biden to sign the bill, it must now pass the House of Representatives. In a statement released after the vote, the president urged members of the House of Representatives to “immediately vote on this bipartisan bill and send it to my office.”

Read More: US Senate passes gun safety bill

“Tonight, after 28 years of inaction, non-partisan lawmakers have gathered to listen to calls from families across the country and to pass legislation against armed violence in our communities,” said former Vice President Biden.

“Uvalde and Buffalo’s families have had so many tragic shootings before. They called for action. We have action tonight. ”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged lawmakers to vote against it, but Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy has vowed to pass the bill in parliament as soon as possible. “The rules committee will meet tomorrow morning to discuss life-saving legislation,” Pelosi said after the vote.

The important thing is that many Democrats and activists probably will not ask for a proposal. Reforms include strict screening of under-21 buyers and $ 15 billion (£ 12.2 billion) in federal funding to improve mental health and school safety programs.

Read More: US Senate targets modest deal on gun control

We also need funding to encourage countries to abide by “red flag” laws in order to remove weapons from those who pose a threat. This closes the “man’s hole” by preventing the sale of weapons to those convicted of abusing an unmarried close partner.
The move is also important because it marks the first time in decades that the proposed reforms have received such support from Democrats and Republicans. Historically, efforts to tighten U.S. gun laws have been thwarted by Republicans.

All 50 Democrats, including the party’s most conservative senators, Senator Joe Mancin and Kirsten Cinema, joined the Republicans who signed the agreement, including Senator Mitch McConnell and Trump’s close aide Lindsey Graham. Many traditional conservative advocacy groups have supported the bill, including the Police Brotherhood and the International Association of Police Chiefs.

Texas Republican Sen. John Connin, who is speaking with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, said the bill would make Americans safer. “Given what we’ve seen in Uvalde and in so many communities, I don’t think we can do anything,” Cornin said.

“Doing nothing means giving up our responsibilities as Americans in the US Senate.”

“It’s not a panacea for how armed violence can affect our country, but it should have been a step in the right direction a long time ago,” said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

But two-thirds of Republicans opposed the move, and everyone except Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Indian Todd Young said they would not meet with voters this year or win re-election. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, widely known as the Republican presidential candidate for 2024, denounced the bill as “disarming law-abiding citizens instead of taking important steps to protect our children.”
March for Our Lives, an arms security group founded by survivors of the 2018 attack on Florida’s Parkland School, welcomed the progress of the bill. “I know we still have a long way to go to stop this epidemic, but tonight we put a lot of effort into it. We refuse to stop or be silent. Stopping the violence is the fight of our lives “, the group wrote on Twitter. The National Association of Rifles (NRA) opposed a bill that will not stop the violence.

Earlier this month, President Biden said the proposal was “a step in the right direction”, but was still not good enough. He called for major reforms last month, including banning or at least raising the age for buying weapons used in mass shootings in Texas and Buffalo. During a Texas shooting, the shooter is said to have bought two semi-automatic rifles at the age of 18. According to the nonprofit research group Archives of Criminal Violence, more than 20,900 people have died in the United States this year in armed violence, including homicides and suicides. †

But it is also a country where the right to arms protected by the second amendment is appreciated by many for “keeping and carrying weapons”. The last federal gun control law, passed in 1994, banned private production of submachine guns and high-capacity magazines, but expired ten years later.

Attempts to strengthen the law did not get enough votes in Congress after the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and 6 adults at a Sandy Hook school in Connecticut. Thursday’s vote came hours after the New York Supreme Court overturned a law restricting the legal possession of weapons.

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for New Yorkers to prove a “reasonable cause” or justifiable reason to carry a weapon in public. McConnell said the decision, combined with Thursday’s law, was a “historic victory.”