Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., holds a news conference after the Senate luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D.N.Y., appears at left.
Tom Williams | CQ-ROLL CALL, INC. , Getty Images
Senators have moved to the brink of a deal on a bipartisan gun violence bill, the Democrat’s lead negotiator said Tuesday, potentially spurring votes this week on an incremental but noteworthy package that will sweep Texas and New York. Will stand as Congress’s response to the firing. shook the nation.
Nine days after Senate bargainers agreed to a framework proposal — and 29 years after Congress last enacted a major measure to curb firearms — Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, told reporters that the proposal’s A final agreement on the details was at hand.
Lawmakers are working toward tightening background checks for the youngest firearms buyers, requiring more sellers to conduct background checks and penalizing gun smugglers. It will also distribute funds to states and communities aimed at improving school safety and mental health initiatives.
“I think we’ve reached agreement,” Murphy said. “And right now we’re dotting the I and crossing the T right now. I think we’re in good shape.”
John Cornyn, R-Texas, the leading Republican bargainer, spoke on the Senate floor moments later and said he, Murphy and the other two top Senate bargainers had “reached an agreement.”
Senators did not initially say how they would resolve the two major hurdles that had delayed agreement on the plan’s legislative language.
One was how to make abusive romantic partners subject to the current ban that violent spouses face for obtaining guns. The second was providing federal aid to states that have “red flag” laws that make it easier to temporarily take firearms away from people deemed dangerous or states that have violence intervention programs.
If enacted, the election-year measure would highlight a slight but change in the politics of an issue that has not been compromised since Bill Clinton was president.
Days after 10 black shoppers were killed last month in Buffalo, New York, and 19 children and two teachers died, Democrats and some Republicans in Uvalde, Texas, decided that this time, Congress would not be responsible for such horrors. Measured steps were better for general feedback – gridlock