Biden said that this law, which includes some regulations that have been expected for years in the USA, “will save a lot of lives.” It entered into force with the signature of . Biden said the bill he signed would save “a lot of lives”.
Speaking at the White House, Biden said, “While this law doesn’t cover everything I want, it does contain the life-saving actions I’ve been demanding for a long time.”
Biden, referring to the families of those killed in the recent successive armed attacks in the USA, said, “The message they sent us was ‘Do something’. ‘For God’s sake, just do something’. And that’s what we did today.”
The new law makes it harder for anyone with a history of domestic violence or a serious crime as a teenager to own a gun. The law also makes it easier to tighten background checks on individuals under the age of 21 who want to buy guns, and to confiscate weapons from people who are considered a threat.
Under the law, 13 billion dollars will be allocated to school safety, violence prevention and mental health programs in the USA.
A first in 30 years
While the law that has passed does not include many of the restrictions Democrats have demanded for years but opposed by Republicans, it is important because it ends Congress’ inaction on measures related to arms sales.
The law also made history as the most serious action taken by Congress against gun violence since the 1994 law banning the sale of assault weapons for a period of 10 years. The ban was repealed in 2004.
Democrats, especially Biden, want measures such as re-banning assault rifles, not selling high-capacity magazines, and examining the background of anyone who wants to buy a gun.
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.
The message “We’ve done the impossible”
The President of the United States used the term “monumental” for the new law, which rarely received bipartisan support in Congress, which is accustomed to political deadlocks as it has almost equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.
“We are doing something very big at a time when it seems impossible to get something done in Washington,” said Biden. “I know there is still a lot of work to be done and I will never give up.”
The bill arrived on Biden’s desk after it passed the Senate on Thursday and the House of Representatives a day later. While 65 senators voted in favor of the bill in the Senate, 33 were voted against. In the voting, it was seen that 15 Republican senators supported the bill, as well as all Democrat senators.
The bill passed the House of Representatives by 234 votes to 193. All Democratic members and 14 Republican lawmakers voted in favor of the bill.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that all American citizens have a constitutional right to carry a gun for self-protection in public places. Biden said he was “great disappointment” with the Supreme Court decision, which the US gun lobby described as a victory.
US President Biden left the White House to attend the G7 summit in Germany after signing the bill on arms sales. After Germany, Biden will travel to Spain to attend the NATO summit in Madrid.
DW,AP,AFP / CO,ET