Senate negotiators declared on Sunday that they had hit a bipartisan deal on a narrow set of gun safety measures with enough support to move through the evenly distributed chamber, a crucial step toward ending a yearslong congressional standoff on the issue.
It would provide funding for states to authorize so-called red-flag laws that permit authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people supposed to be dangerous, as well as money for mental health help and to bloodstain safety and mental health services at schools.
The authorization, put forth by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats and endorsed by President Biden and top Democrats, contains enhanced background checks to give permissions moment to check the juvenile and mental state records of any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21 and expenditure that would, for the initial time, extend to dating partners a prohibit domestic abusers having guns.
“Today, we are announcing a common-sense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe and reduce the threat of violence across our country,” the 20 senators, led by Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, and John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in a joint statement. “Families are scared, and we must come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.”
For some groups of those lost in Uvalde, the Senate contract would not go nearly far enough. Leonard Sandoval, whose 10-year-old grandson Xavier Lopez died at Robb Elementary School last month, said he wanted a ban on semiautomatic weapons like those used in almost every principal mass shooting of the previous decade.
Mr. Sandoval said Those weapons are for soldiers, not someone to use on us. They require to restrict those first. These are the weapons they have used in many of these shootings, and people don’t need access to them. They are for wars.
Others whose loved ones have died from gun violence said they were concentrating on keeping together the unstable coalition in the Senate that forged the settlement, especially maintaining the Republicans on board.
They will be under huge pressure, said Garnell Whitfield Jr., whose mother, Ruth Whitfield, was shot and killed in Buffalo. The goal is to make sure that they stay strong moving forward.
