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| Photo Credit: Reuters via BBC. |
The US Senate has passed its first gun control bill in nearly 30 years. The bill imposes tougher checks on young buyers and encourages states to remove guns from people considered a threat to themselves and others.
The
bipartisan deal was struck after lengthy negotiations between the Democrats and
Republicans after serious of mass shootings –notably the Buffalo racially
motivated killings and the mass shooting at an Uvalde School in Texas. !5
Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate to approve the bill, according to
the BBC.
The bill
will now have to be endorsed by the US House of Representatives before it could
be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The bill
would most likely scale through in the Democrats controlled House.
Responding,
US President Joe Biden said “bipartisan members came to heed the call of
families,” who have suffered untold damage as a result of unending mass
shootings across the U.S.
“Tonight,
after 28 years of inaction, bipartisan members of Congress came together to
heed the call of families across the country and passed legislation to address
the scourge of gun violence in our communities,” the President said.
“Families in
Uvalde and Buffalo – and too many tragic shootings before – have demanded
action. And tonight, we added.
“This
bipartisan legislation will help protect Americans. Kids in schools and
communities will be safer because of it,” Mr Biden said urging The House of
Representatives to “promptly” vote on the bipartisan bill so it could be sent
to his desk for signing.
No fewer
than 19 school children were shot dead at an Uvalde Elementary School when a
shooter barricaded himself in two adjoining classrooms. The suspect who was
later shot down by the police also killed two teachers. In New York a racist
shooter gunned down several persons at a supermarket in Buffalo, mostly minority
groups.
According to
the BBC, the reforms include:
1. Tougher background checks for buyers
younger than 21
2. $15bn (£12.2bn) in federal funding
for mental health programs and school security upgrades
3. Funding to encourage states to
implement "red flag" laws to remove firearms from people considered a
threat
4. Closing the so-called "boyfriend
loophole" by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried
intimate partners
The bill is
a far cry from what most Americans including the President had anticipated
which includes a ban on assault weapons which were used in the Texas and
Buffalo mass shootings or at least raise the buying age for weapons from 18 to
21 or 22.
The Uvalde
gunman is believed to have purchased two semi-automatic rifles days after
turning 18.
The vote
passed by a margin of 65 -33, in what analysts believe is a landmark victory
for victims of gun violence and mass shootings.
All 50
Democrats, including the party's most conservative members, Senators Joe
Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, voted for the bill, according to the BBC. Other
senators who joined in approving the bill include the party’s Senate Leader Mitch
McConnell and Lindsey Graham, who is a close ally of former President Donald
Trump and a traditional opponent of gun-control legislation.,
Texas
Senator John Cornyn played an important role in the bipartisan deasl following
the brutal murder of innocent school children in Uvalde, Texas.