US gun control: Cross-party group of senators agrees limited safety measureson June 12, 2022 at 5:45 pm

A cross-party group of US senators say they have agreed a framework for potential legislation on gun safety.

The measures would include support for tougher background checks for buyers under the age of 21 and cracking down on illegal gun purchases.

But they fall far short of President Joe Biden’s calls for change.

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the US on Saturday to call for stricter gun laws in the wake of two mass shootings.

Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the 24 May shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

That attack, and another days earlier in Buffalo, New York, in which 10 people were killed, led to renewed calls for action on gun control in the US.

“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 Senate group said in a statement.

“Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.”

Republicans made up half of the 20 senators who proposed the new measures.

The senators also called for increased investment in mental health services and school safety resources, as well as including domestic violence convictions and restraining orders in the national background check database for people buying firearms.

President Biden urged lawmakers to pass the proposals quickly, while making clear that they did not go as far as he wanted.

The president has pushed for far bigger reforms – including a ban on assault rifles, which were used in the Texas and Buffalo shootings – or at least an increase in the age at which they can be purchased.

“Obviously, it 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,” he said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who said the plans were “a good first step”, said he wanted to move a bill quickly to a Senate vote once legislative details were worked out.

The US has the highest rate of firearms deaths among the world’s wealthy nations, but is a country where many cherish gun rights which are protected by the Constitution’s Second Amendment to “keep and bear arms”.

These are the first gun safety laws to receive bipartisan support of this kind in decades, with previous attempts by Democrats for strengthened controls frustrated by Republicans.

Attempts to tighten the laws in the wake of a previous school shooting at Sandy Hook in Connecticut nearly a decade ago – in which 20 children and six adults were killed – failed to get the required votes in Congress.

The Senate, or upper chamber of Congress, is currently split – with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans – and legislation must have 60 votes to overcome a manoeuvre known as the filibuster.

The Democrat-controlled lower chamber, the House of Representatives, this week voted through a series of measures regulating the sale of guns.

But Republican opposition in the Senate means the bill has little chance of entering law, leaving the bipartisan deal agreed on Sunday as the only realistic hope for federal measures to address firearms violence.