WASHINGTON (Fwrd Axis) — The Senate passed a sweeping gun legislation bill late Thursday in an attempt to prevent future gun violence in a win for advocates and giving a rare defeat for the National Rifle Association.
The legislation passed with 15 Republicans joining all 50 Democratic senators, sending the bill to the House for a vote expected Friday.
“The United States Senate is doing something many believed was impossible even a few weeks ago. We are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said prior to taking the vote. “The gun safety bill we are passing tonight can be described with three adjectives: bipartisan, commonsense, lifesaving.”
Included in the bill is funding to states for “red flag” laws and crisis prevention programs and enhanced background checks for people ages 18 to 21. It also attempts to close the “boyfriend loophole” by keeping guns away from dating partners convicted of abuse.
If made into law, the bill would require sellers to register as firearm licensees, which would require them to conduct background checks on potential buyers.
“Shooting after shooting, murder after murder, suicide after suicide — for 30 years, Congress stood in its political corners and did nothing. But not this time. This will become the most significant piece of anti-gun-violence legislation Congress has passed in three decades,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Pa.) said in a statement after the bill passed through the Senate.
The passage of the bill is the most sweeping gun legislation package to advance to the house in over 20 years. A bipartisan group of senators including Murphy, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) all came together to ensure its passing.
“I’m encouraged about how much common ground we were able to find,” Cornyn said. “People who’ve suffered unthinkable losses in some of these mass shootings incidents. But I want to tell them that their advocacy has turned their pain into something positive.”
It resulted in a rare major loss for the NRA, which slammed the bill.
“It does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners,” the NRA said in a statement.
President Joe Biden said he is looking forward to signing the bill into law as soon as possible.
“I am glad to see Congress has moved significantly closer to finally doing something — passing bipartisan legislation that will help protect Americans,” he said in a statement. “Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation. I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk.”
