U.S. Senate advances bipartisan gun legislation backed by Cornyn

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Exactly 4 weeks after a teenage gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle massacred 19 elementary schoolers and two academics in Uvalde, the U.S. Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday evening to advance a bipartisan compromise that, if enacted, would turn out to be the primary main legislation on gun security since 1994.

The legislation doesn’t prohibit any rights of present gun house owners — a non-starter for Senate Republicans. Instead, it might improve background checks for gun purchasers youthful than 21; make it simpler to take away weapons from folks threatening to kill themselves or others, and individuals who have dedicated home violence; make clear who must register as a federal firearms seller; and crack down on unlawful gun trafficking, together with so-called straw purchases, which happen when the precise purchaser of a firearm makes use of one other particular person to execute the paperwork to purchase on their behalf.

The legislation additionally consists of $11 billion for psychological well being providers and $2 billion for community-based anti-violence applications. It additionally consists of cash to assist younger sufferers entry psychological well being providers by way of telemedicine, cash for extra school-based psychological well being facilities, and help for suicide hotlines.

Republican John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas, who was formally rebuked by the Republican Party of Texas on Saturday night for taking part in bipartisan negotiations, mentioned he felt assured that senators would see the deal as an inexpensive compromise. If it holds up, that might itself be a rare achievement after years during which mass shootings have devastated American communities, with numbing actuality.

“This is an issue that divides much of the country, depending on where you live, and maybe divides people living in the same household. But I think we have found some areas where there’s space for compromise and we’ve also found that there are some red lines and no middle ground,” Cornyn mentioned on the ground of the Senate. “We’ve talked, we’ve debated, we’ve disagreed and finally we’ve reached an agreement among the four of us but obviously this is not something that is going to become law or fail to become law because of a small group of senators. The truth is we had a larger group of 20 senators, 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, come together and sign on to an agreed set of principles, and I believe that as the senators see the text that supports those principles, they will see we’ve tried our best to be true to what those agreed principles should be.”

The launch on Tuesday night of the 80-page Bipartisan Safer Communities Act got here after 20 senators — with the Democrats led by Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and the Republicans by Cornyn — to translate a broad framework settlement into particular language. The Senate voted 64-to-34, lower than two hours after the ultimate textual content was circulated, to place the legislation on a path to go the Senate by the top of the week.

The Senate Republican chief, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, rapidly endorsed the textual content of the legislation, whereas the National Rifle Association instantly opposed it. While gun rights stay a robust factor of Republican politics, the N.R.A. itself has turn out to be a politically weaker pressure, partly due to monetary and different scandals.

The Senate vote capped a momentous day as Texas grapples with the aftermath of the May 24 tragedy, the deadliest college taking pictures in its historical past. Earlier on Tuesday, a Texas Senate committee held a marathon listening to during which the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety squarely blamed the Uvalde faculties police chief for what he referred to as an inexcusable hour-plus delay in fatally confronting the gunman. Critics have requested whether or not among the 19 college students and 2 two academics might need survived had the delay not occurred; one trainer died on the best way to the hospital.

The Uvalde faculties police chief, Pete Arredondo, was elected to the Uvalde City Council earlier than the taking pictures, and had requested for a go away of absence from these duties. On Tuesday, the council denied that request. (The college police report back to the varsity board, not the City Council.)

Also on Tuesday evening, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, accused the Department of Public Safety of selectively leaking transcripts, video footage and different supplies to the press to painting native authorities as inept.

“Someone has chosen to release bits and pieces of body cams, surveillance videos of their choosing,” the mayor mentioned, “to create chaos in our community and keep the whole truth from coming out.”

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