The bill was passed with 33 Republican senators voting against it, with 65 senators in favour. Fifteen of the Republican senators voted in favor of the bill.
The bill must also pass the House of Representatives before it can be submitted to US President Joe Biden’s approval. All Republican members of the House of Representatives are expected to vote against it. However, since the Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives, Republican support is not required for the bill to pass. Voting in the House of Representatives is scheduled for today.
CONTENT OF THE Draft
The bill, passed in the Senate, makes it harder for people with a history of domestic violence or a serious crime as a teenager to own a gun.
The bill also facilitates the tightening of background checks on individuals under the age of 21 who wish to purchase a gun, and the confiscation of weapons by the authorities of those considered a threat.
The bill also calls for $13 billion to be allocated to school safety, violence prevention and mental health programs.
THE ATTACKS THAT SHOCKED THE USA WERE EFFECTIVE
The attacks in the city of Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, last month in the USA, the country where individual armament is the most common in the world, inflamed the discussions about the sale of weapons. While 19 students and two teachers were killed in the primary school attack in Uvalde, 10 people were killed in a supermarket in Buffalo 10 days before this incident.
After the attacks, both the Democratic and Republican parties concluded that Congress must now act. After weeks of closed-door negotiations, senators from both parties agreed on some steps that could make such attacks less common.
US President Biden, in a statement after the bill was approved, said, “Both the families in Uvalde and Buffalo, as well as the many tragic armed attacks that took place, demanded action from us. Tonight, we took an action.” Biden, who asked the US House of Representatives to approve the bill and send it to him as soon as possible, said that especially children in schools will be safer thanks to this law.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “Tonight, the U.S. Senate is doing something that only a few weeks ago many thought was impossible: We are passing the first significant gun control bill in almost 30 years.” “The gun control bill we pass tonight can be described by three adjectives: bipartisan, discreet and lifesaving,” the Democratic senator added.
DID NOT FOLLOW ALL THE DEMOCRATS’ REQUESTS
The bill, which passed the Senate, does not include many of the restrictions Democrats have demanded for years but opposed by Republicans, but it is important in terms of ending Congress’s inaction on measures related to arms sales.
Democrats, especially Biden, want measures such as banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.
The day the bill passed the Senate in the US, the Supreme Court ruled that it is a constitutional right for all American citizens to carry a gun for self-defense in public places. Biden said he was “great disappointment” with the Supreme Court decision, which the US gun lobby described as a victory.
DW,rtr,AP,AFP/CO,JD