US Senate makes bipartisan framework to tackle mass shootings
A modest framework is on the table.
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Protests against gun violence across the United States in 2021
As a response to last month's mass shootings, senate members announced a bipartisan framework that offers measured gun curbs and efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.
Although the proposal does not present more radical solutions to the mass shootings crises in the US, it is a modest move that will pave the way for more legislation to put an end to gun violence in the future.
There have been hopes among people in leadership to pass the law quickly, perhaps this month, before the political momentum dies out as it was only recently when mass shootings claimed tens of lives in Uvalde and Buffalo.
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According to the framework, juvenile records of gun buyers under the age of 21 will be made available when they undergo background checks. The shooters that committed their crimes in Uvalde and Buffalo have committed mass shootings in recent years, though they're both only 18. Furthermore, the agreement will offer money to states to enforce "red flag" laws that will facilitate confiscating guns from people considered potentially violent.
The framework would also require more people who sell guns to obtain dealer licenses, which entails that they'd have to implement background checks on purchasers.
In a statement, Biden said the framework “does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”
Given the bipartisan support, “there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House,” he said.
This year, gun violence has claimed the lives of more than 19,300 people in the United States according to the Gun Violence Archive.
