Congress sends gun violence bill to Biden
WASHINGTON - The House sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades on Friday, a measured compromise that at illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.
The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters’ revulsion over last month’s mass shootings in New York and Texas. The night before, the Senate approved it by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting a package that senators from both parties had crafted.
The bill would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people found to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and many other massacres.
And while it omits the far tougher restrictions Democrats have long championed, it stands as the most impactful gun violence measure that Congress has approved since it enacted a now-expired assault weapons ban nearly 30 years ago.
For the conservatives who dominate Republicans in the House, it all came down to the Constitution’s Second Amendment right for people to have firearms, a protection that is key for many voters who own guns.
Fifteen Senate Republicans backed the compromise, but that still meant that fewer than one-third of GOP senators supported the measure. And with Republicans in the House solidly against it, the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious.
The bill lacked favorite Democratic proposals like bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo and Uvalde. But it still let both parties declare victory by demonstrating to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work.
The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.
People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole.”
That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim.
There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them that for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.
The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a “dangerous weapon.”