WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval Friday to a bipartisan compromise intended to stop dangerous people from accessing firearms, ending nearly three decades of congressional inaction over how to counter gun violence and toughen the nation’s gun laws.
The House approved the measure 234-193 one month to the day after a gunman stormed into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 19 children and two teachers, sparking outrage across the country and a flurry of negotiations on Capitol Hill. The measure now heads to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.
Galvanized by the horror of the Texas shooting as well as a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that left 10 Black people dead in May, lawmakers struck a deal that fell far short of the sweeping gun control measures Democrats have long demanded but was more expansive than the steps that Republicans have been willing to consider in the past, given their hostility to any step that might curb access to guns.
The legislation will enhance background checks for potential gun buyers under the age of 21, requiring for the first time that authorities have time to examine juvenile records, including mental health records beginning at age 16.
It provides millions of dollars for states to implement so-called red flag laws that allow officials to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed in court to be too dangerous to own them, and other intervention programs. And it strengthens laws against straw purchasing and trafficking of guns.
In addition, the measure pours more federal money into shoring up mental health programs across the country and toughening security in schools. And the bill tightens a federal ban on domestic abusers buying firearms, including recent or current serious dating partners, to close what has come to be called the boyfriend loophole.
Final passage of the measure came a day after 15 Republican senators joined Democrats in breaking a GOP filibuster to push the measure through the Senate, clearing a hurdle that had proved insurmountable for most past efforts to update gun laws after other horrific mass shootings. The House passed the measure with a similarly low margin of Republican support, as top GOP leaders urged their members to oppose the measure as a threat to the Second Amendment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
