House sends Biden bipartisan measure to toughen gun laws

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks to Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., after the House approved the gun safety bill on Friday. Pelosi took the unusual step of presiding over the vote herself and announcing the result from the podium.
(AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks to Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., after the House approved the gun safety bill on Friday. Pelosi took the unusual step of presiding over the vote herself and announcing the result from the podium. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON -- The House sent President Joe Biden a bipartisan compromise on Friday intended to toughen the nation's gun laws, the widest ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping action prompted by voters' revulsion over last month's mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved the measure late Thursday by a bipartisan 65-33 margin.

The White House said Biden would sign the bill and deliver remarks on it this morning.

Every House Democrat and 14 Republicans -- six of whom won't be in Congress next year -- voted for the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., underscored its significance to her party by taking the unusual step of presiding over the vote and announcing the result from the podium, to huzzahs from rank-and-file Democrats on the chamber's floor.

Among Republicans backing the legislation was Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has broken with her party's leaders and is helping lead the House investigation into last year's Capitol riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

"As a mother and a constitutional conservative, I'm proud to support this sensible bill that will protect our children and limit violence without infringing on law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights," Cheney said in a statement. "Nothing in the bill restricts the rights of responsible gun owners. Period."

Final approval of the measure came after the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that restricted where gun owners could bring a firearm outside the home, a decision that cast a pall for some Democrats who were elated about the gun bill's success after decades of congressional failure on the issue.

With Thursday's gun ruling by the justices, Pelosi said "the Trump-McConnell court is implicitly endorsing the tragedy of mass shootings and daily gun deaths plaguing our nation." That was a reference to the balance-tipping three conservative justices appointed by Trump and confirmed by a Senate that was run by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But House Republicans used the gun debate to praise the court decision.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said it has "electrified the country and left radicals seething -- the Constitution means what it says."

The bill, crafted by senators from both parties, would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Conn., Parkland, Fla. and many other massacres.

It omits far tougher restrictions Democrats have long championed like a ban on assault-type weapons and background checks for all gun transactions, but is the most impactful firearms violence measure Congress has approved since enacting a now-expired assault weapons ban in 1993.

The legislation was a direct result of the slaying of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, exactly one month ago, and the killing of 10 Black shoppers days earlier in Buffalo, N.Y. Lawmakers returned from their districts after those shootings saying constituents were demanding congressional action, a vehemence many felt could not be ignored.

"Our success today will never be the end of this fight, but this is a beginning," said Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose son was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station in 2012. "This gives us hope. This gives America hope. This gives our communities the sorely needed hope that we have been crying out for, for years and years and years."

McBath later grew emotional on the House floor, wiping away tears as she embraced her Democratic colleagues and celebrated the legislation's passage. Applause broke out in the chamber as it became clear the bill had secured a majority of support.

Speaking haltingly, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said he was backing the bill for his father, shot to death 30 years ago to the day that 58 people were killed in a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas "and so many other Americans who are victims and survivors of gun violence."

JORDAN'S WARNING

For conservatives who dominate the House GOP, it came down to the Constitution's Second Amendment right for people to have firearms, a protection key for many voters who own guns.

"Today they're coming after our Second Amendment liberties, and who knows what it will be tomorrow," Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said of Democrats.

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., recalled a shooting at a baseball field in Virginia that left House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., severely wounded and how he wished he had a firearm with him for protection that day.

"The actions on the field that day solidified my support for the Second Amendment," Davis said.

The four members of Arkansas' all-Republican House delegation each voted against the anti-gun violence package on Friday.

Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro said the measure would infringe on Second Amendment rights.

"There are a variety of issues here," he said.

Rep. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs agreed that the legislation violated people's Second Amendment rights. While he said there were parts of the bill he could have supported, "But not at the expense of degrading our constitutional rights."

In the Senate, every Democrat and 15 Republicans backed the compromise. Just two of those GOP senators face reelection next year.

But overall, fewer than one-third of GOP senators and just 1-in-15 House Republicans supported the measure. That means the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious, even as the GOP is expected to win House and possibly Senate control in the November elections.

McConnell kept careful tabs on the negotiations that produced the bill and voted for it, partly in hopes it would attract moderate suburban voters whose support the GOP will need in its November bid for Senate control. In contrast, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other GOP leaders of the more conservative House opposed it.

OPPONENTS, SUPPORTERS

The legislation was opposed by firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. But groups backing gun curbs like Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety weren't the only ones backing it.

Support also came from the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The talks that produced the bill were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Under the compromise, background checks for gun buyers age 18 to 20 will now include an examination of their local juvenile records. The accused shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo were both 18.

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.

Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram and Kevin Freking and of The Associated Press, by Emily Cochrane of The New York Times and by Ryan Tarinelli of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

  photo  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and other lawmakers, speaks about the gun violence bill at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  FILE -Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has led the Democrats in bipartisan Senate talks to rein in gun violence, pauses for questions from reporters, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. The Senate on Thursday, June 23, 2022 easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
 
 
  photo  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and other lawmakers, talk about the gun violence bill at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. At left is Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., and at right is Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  From left, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., listen as they attend an event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol about gun violence Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads the passage of the gun safety bill in the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  From left, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., attend an event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol about gun violence Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads the passage of the gun safety bill in the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads the passage of the gun safety bill in the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 
  photo  Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has led the Democrats in bipartisan Senate talks to rein in gun violence, talks to reporters, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Senate bargainers reached agreement on a bipartisan gun violence bill yesterday, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicting Senate approval later this week. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 


  photo  “Our success today will never be the end of this fight, but this is a beginning,” Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose son was shot and killed in 2012, said Friday after the vote. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
 


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