US Senate Unveils Bi-partisan Agreement on Gun Control Legislation

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A bipartisan group of US senators announced today they have come to an agreement on a framework for gun control legislation.

President Joe Biden said that he will sign the framework as soon as it comes to his desk.

The deal would incentivise “red flag” laws but would not include provisions championed by Democrats up to Biden himself, like increasing the age to purchase certain rifles to 21 from 18 or a ban on assault weapons.

“I continue to believe military-style assault weapons that can shred the bodies of their victims have no place in civilian use—but we cannot let the perfect Congressional response be the enemy of the good,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin wrote on Twitter today.

“Though this agreement falls short in this and other respects, it can and will make our nation safer.” 

New Jersey Democrat Senator Corey Booker shared a similar sentiment, making it clear that Congress needs to go further to successfully counter the devastating spate of mass shootings seen in recent weeks.

“I support these bipartisan measures that would begin to curb gun violence in America. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will find a way to make these changes and provide these resources. We need to continue our efforts to pass common sense gun safety laws,” Booker wrote on Twitter. 

David Hogg, a gun control activist and survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting praised the legislation as a “first step.”

“This is a first step and it’s actually a lot more than I thought it would be. This is progress even if small. Even if it stops one parkland it’s worth it,” Hogg said, referencing the 2018 shooting that took the lives of 14 of his classmates and three adults.

Biden said today after the compromise was unveiled, “Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”

While the deal is substantially less than the House bills passed last week and is weaker than what Democrats want, it does provide the framework for the most significant federal gun restrictions in nearly three decades.

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